


Wake Me Up

by prince_balloon_boy



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aromantic, Homoromantic, Science Fiction, Suicide, Time Travel, biromantic character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-04-29 14:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 29,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5130485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prince_balloon_boy/pseuds/prince_balloon_boy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hero stumbles upon time travel accidentally and finds himself caught up in problems he hadn't previously cared about. With seven dead people to deal with, the only thing that can help him out is by answering his own questions with the help of the mysterious gears. With time travel, friends, his brother and father to worry about, Hero doesn't see his life slowing down anytime soon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The rain drops whipped against the window with a dull cracking sound. It was too dark outside to see anything other than the white outlines of the fast moving water drops. Hero pulled his legs up on the chair and pressed his cheek against the cold window, it had only been ten minutes since he had got out of the mess outside.

Within those ten minutes he had rubbed his hands together a total of two-hundred seventy-three times, tapped his foot five-hundred forty-eight times, sighed twenty times, and bit his lip six times. He had wished that he had brought his book so he didn't have to count such trivial things. If his friends had given him advanced notice that they were going to take him away somewhere he would have been able to properly prepare. He couldn't even badger them about it because they had taken off once he was inside.

There were two other strangers in the room that Hero could have been eavesdropping on, however had decided against the old childish activity. He had sighed, making it his twenty-first sigh, which only caused another sigh. Even if it was childish it would have been far more interesting than what he had chosen to keep him occupied.

He had started to examine the room again. His eyes drifting from the grey furniture to the green wallpaper. After a while he started to pick out arched lines that appeared throughout all the wallpaper in a chaotic way. Several times, Hero thought about getting up to touch it to see if it was living. The more he stared at the more it the more arched lines appeared, as if the wallpaper was breathing them out.

The lines became too much and Hero found himself rubbing his eyes trying to press the wallpaper out of his mind. He almost cried out in joy when he heard his name being called. He promptly stood up, pointing his head down just enough so the wallpaper wasn't too overwhelming.

Once he found his way into the new room, he looked up again to have his eyes meet with the same wallpaper. "You should change your wallpaper." Hero muttered.

"You think so? I like it, it is calming." She replied sitting down in one of the only chairs in the room. Next to it was a desk with an old white computer which made a quiet buzzing sound. "Would you like to sit down?"

Hero looked at the soft grey armchair, a twin to the one she was sitting on. "No thank you, I am comfortable standing."

Her pink lips curled into a smile. "That is just fine. My name is Mrs. Clara Holt, you can call me Clara, and I am thirty-three years old. I've been a therapist for nine years." Hero nodded and there was a brief pause before Mrs. Holt spoke again. "Would you like to introduce yourself?"

Twenty-third sigh, Hero counted mentally. He would have made a smart remark if he was just a bit younger about how she had already used his name and knew the basics about him. "My name is Hero Switcher, I am nineteen years old."

Mrs. Holt nodded and turned to her computer. She gave the mouse a wiggle and hummed until the screen light up. "Why are you here sweetie?"

"My friends dropped me off here without warning. I suppose they made a date with you."

"Then how are you feeling?"

Hero watched her pink lips move up and down feeling his legs getting weaker. "Annoyed." It wasn't lie.

"Annoyed isn't the reason your friends sent you off to see me."

"Then maybe you should ask them how I am feeling." Hero lashed out clenching his fist. Twenty-four, he walked over to the grey chair and sat down. He placed his head in his hands and didn't say anything more to Mrs. Holt until she spoke to him after a few minutes of silence.

"Lets check some of this paper work to make sure that it is correct." Mrs. Holt turned back to the monitor. After a few seconds of clicks and scrolls, she spoke again. "It says here you have been in university for almost four years, but you are only nineteen."

"Yes." Hero replied simply.

There was no more comments on that section and the scrolling continued. "It also says that you have a strained relationship with your parents. Is there a certain reason?"

Hero rolled his eyes, if Yvie and Yates were going to explain everything about his life, they could have done it in more detail so he didn't have to answer any questions. "I don't know where one of them is, and the other died."

Mrs. Holt said nothing, she just nodded. "And you have one sibling? What would you say your relationship with him is like?"

Twenty-five. There wasn't a clear answers or defining word for their relationship. "Its fine now."

"Was it worse before?"

"Yes."

The therapist did nothing but nod again. How was nodding supposed to help him? Hero thought. He didn't even know what he needed help with. "Would you say that your family dynamic adds to your depression?"

"My depression?" Hero would have laughed if he wasn't in a professional setting. "I don't have depression."

"It says on here that your are suffering from depression."

Hero almost let go of his twenty-sixth sigh, but held it in. "I don't." It was a simple reply, truthful enough. "I'm not dumb enough to think suicide is the answer."

"Not everyone who suffers from depression has thoughts of suicide." Mrs. Holt answered easily. Her pink lips were still in a tight smile.

There was no response from the nineteen year old. He was still busy looking at her lips. He blinked, realizing that he hasn't looked her in the eyes yet, the colour of them couldn't even come to his head. A hard lump formed in his throat, he couldn't get his eyes to move up past her soft pink lips. What was wrong with him? Two-hundred seventy-four, five, six, seven. Stop. Hero forced his hands apart. Twenty-seven, he knew he looked crazy.

"You don't have to talk to me about that if you don't want too. You can talk about anything you would like." Mrs. Holt suggested.

"Can I tell you a story? It is kind of long. We might need a few weeks."

Mrs. Clara nodded. "Why don't you start now?"

_\----_

"Did you hear the latest news?"

"I did! Can you believe it? Isn't this the seventh one in two months?"

"I think, I wonder why so many at one time?"

"Could it be like, an illness or something?"

"Maybe..."

"I hope I don't catch it!"

The two girls continued to chatter endlessly about current events, mostly the ones that media had hyped up. Hero, sadly, had forgotten to bring his book into school that day and with nothing better to do, he sat and listened to them. His brain picked apart their conversation, trying, but failing, to make any sense of it. Soon, he just had to turn his attention off of them when he could feel a headache in progress.

Though it looked like the headache would come no matter what, as a red headed girl with pigtails skipped over to his desk. Her light pink lips were pulled into a smile and her blue eyes shined with her usual overpowering happiness. Her light blue uniform skirt looked dampened, no doubt from the heavy snow that awaited outside. "Hey, Hero! How's my favorite little genius?" He was about to answer, although never got a chance as she began to speak again. "By the way, did you hear about the seventh death?"

"Yes." Hero's voice was monotone thinking back to the conversation he had been listening too. "Not like these incidents really matter anyways, Yvie." He bit his tongue realizing what he had said and looked up at Yvie hoping she wasn't too offended.

There was a small quiver in Yvie's smile, though it quickly turned into a fake frown and crossing of arms. "I would totally hate to be a genius! You like, never have any feelings!"

"Not every person as smart as me, acts like me. Plus, I have feelings!" Hero argued back. They were evident as he felt bad for saying what he had said to Yvie.

"Whatever." There was a slight irritation in her voice. "I just think you should call them suicides not incidents. It like, sounds really cold." With that said, she sat in her desk beside Hero's.

"Right." He decided to just agree, arguing with Yvie wasn't one of his favorite hobbies in the world. Although, he would never say this to her, seven suicides in a span of two months was strange, especially in a town as small as theirs. However, not wanting to dwell on the thought too long he came up with a new conversation starter. "Where is Yates?"

"Oh! He is coming, I think he went a different way with Ren."

Of course, not too long after Yvie had said that, the door to the class room opened and in came two panting teenage boys. One of which had a bright red mob of hair, and had several similar traits to Yvie, the other one had shaggy brown hair. They were both wearing similar uniforms to Hero, a white dress shirt with a blue over coat, yet neither had on the blue-grey bow-tie.

Upon entering the room the couple of boys burst into a fit of laughter. "Yates! You should have seen your face!" The dark haired boy said taking deep breaths. His ebony eyes seemed to be smiling with amusement.

"Really Ren, I think that dog gave you the biggest scare! You bolted before I even noticed it!" Hero could barely make out what Yates was trying to say through his deep breaths and laughter.

The pair of girls Hero was listening to a moment ago walked up to the set of boys that had just entered the room. "You two were almost late!" They said in unison. "What were you doing?"

Ren and Yates both shared a glance before looking at the other duo, smiling devilishly. "Sorry mom, Yates and I were just outside playing." Ren started in a mock little kid voice.

"It won't happen again, we promise." Yates finished looking sideways at Ren, but getting no response back from him.

The girls on the other hand, both clutched their fists, spun around, and marched stiffly back to their desks in the rear of the classroom. When they were seated, Ren and Yates made their way to location Yvie and Hero were sitting.

"What happened to your leg Ren!" Yvie was the first to speak, bringing direct attention to the bleeding and torn up leg that belong to Ren, of course, Hero could guess, it wasn't as bad as it looked, but knowing Ren, he would play it off as him being tough and dealing with the pain.

"Oh this small thing? We got chased by a big scary dog!" Ren lifted his hands above his head and wrinkled his nose in attempt to look 'big and scary'. "It got really mad for no reason and it bit me! It's teeth were like, six inches deep! The thing was probably rabid!"

"Oh!" Yvie gasped. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Hero heaved a sigh and straightened up in his chair. "Dogs don't have six inch teeth, and I'm guessing you did something stupid to make it angry. Probably poked it with a stick or barked at it."

Ren had a sort of smug kind of smile on his face, while Yates's guilty smile told Hero that he was correct in his thoughts.

"Well, that makes more sense! Yates, mom told you not to be so stupid!" Yvie said in a girly-harsh voice.

"Mom didn't say don't be stupid! She said don't do anything ignorant!" Yates argued.

"Ignorant and stupid are the same thing! Tell him Hero!"

"Ignorant meaning lacking knowledge or awareness in general. Stupid meaning lacking intelligence or common sense. They are not the same, yet both of them describe you three perfectly." Hero informed with a superior look on his face.

_Ring, ring!_

Both Ren and Yates frowned when the bell went off and they sat down in their own seats and faced the front of the class.

"Hello class!" A friendly sounding male teacher said walking into the room. He had thick black hair, and was carrying a mountain of books with him. His face showed that he was struggling with them, though soon made it to the teacher's desk. Hero gave a small chuckle under his breath, Mr. Campbell always played the same joke on each substitute.

This substitute already seemed to be a klutz, and the books landing on the desk with a boom, then sliding off one by one didn't help his case. With a very red face he just ignored the books and scrambled to get the attendance sheet. "Hello again, I will be subbing for Mr. Campbell, my name is Mr. Holland, and I will be your sub-wait, I already said that..." That didn't really help his case either, Hero thought. "Lets start the attendance before we start the history!"

Hero frowned, he knew how this would go, it happened with every sub, during every attendance call. Personally, his view on the whole situation, was a bad record stuck on repeat.

Mr. Holland went through the names, and the list got shorter and shorter, until, "Hero-"

"Here." Hero said standing up trying to make himself look as tall as he possibly could. Though, he knew his efforts were fruitless.

"Oh my! Are you lost little boy?" Mr. Holland made his way over to Hero, stumbling over a few legs of the desk. "You must be only seven or eight!" He bent down so he was eye level with Hero.

"I'm seven and I'm not lost. My name is on the attendance." Hero said flatly, he sung this song too often. "I'm too smart to be in any grade below."

The teacher's smile only seemed to grow bigger and he placed his hand on Hero's head. "You are so cute! I remember when I was a kid, I always wanted to be with the older kids too."

"You're not listing to me! I'm too smart to be in second or third grade! I'm not hanging around these idiots because I want to!" His voice was raising with each word and his anger starting to boiling as Mr. Holland began to ruffle his chestnut coloured hair.. "Stop touching me!"

"Oh, you shouldn't be using such harsh words, imagine what your mother would think. You don't want to get in trouble would you?" The young man laughed a little, along with the rest of the class. Hero could feel his face heating up and he decided to not argue any more with the substitute. "Well, back to roll call!"

Mr. Holland walked back to the desk and finished calling everybody's name. "So, what are all these books for anyway? I don't see anything on the planner about these." Some of the class started to giggle, but hide it by covering there mouths, others just let their laughter be seen and heard. "What is it students?" After a few more minutes of loud laughter, one of the girls filled him about Mr. Campbell's book joke. "Oh... Well, then, what were you doing last time in class?"

Hero raised his hand first, yet the teacher ignored him and called on another student. The same event continued throughout the first period history class, and Hero was happy to hear the bell when it rung signaling them to all leave and head to their next period.

Try as he might, Hero couldn't get over the fact that Mr. Holland had decided to ignore him and not even attempt to hear him out. It wasn't at all a hard concept to accept, Hero thought bitterly, he was smart, but for some reason, people can never get past his appearance. He wasn't looking to prove himself, although, sometimes he felt that he needed too. He could retell any novel that he had read and name all the muscles in the human body. All that was above normal standards for a seven year old boy, let alone a normal ninth grader. Hero took a deep breath and tried to get back to listening to the teacher in the class that was going on.

The end of school came relatively quick after the first period, and Hero was ready to head home and relax in his favorite chair and read a book. He walked down the halls thinking about what book he would read today, perhaps fiction, but if so, of what genera? He sighed, he still had so many books left in his own library.

His thoughts were interrupted by a small tug on his arm. Hero looked up and saw that it was Mr. Holland. "Do you need something, sir?"

"Oh, no." The teacher said slowly not really looking at Hero despite having his head facing down. "Actually I wanted to say something. Uh, sorry Hero, but I was informed that you are indeed apart of the ninth grade class."

"Informed?"

Mr. Holland nodded. "Yes, there was a note left on my desk. Probably from one of your fellow students."

A fellow student? Hero doubted it, after all, most of the students thought it was funny whenever a substitute came in and treated him like a little kid. Who could have left the note then if it wasn't a student? No other teachers were around or walked in after the rest of his class left. Maybe Yvie or Yates said something, though usually those two liked to stay away from teachers and wouldn't be fast enough to think of a note. Ren? No way, not a chance.

His thoughts were again interrupted this time thanks to two figures snapping in his face. "Looks like someone pressed your pause button, are you okay?"

"Sorry," Hero said not really hearing Mr. Holland at all. "I have to go, I'm late." He walked out the door before the sub could say anything else.

"Hey, Hero!" Yvie called running up to Hero who had just exited the school building, Yates was right behind her. "I totally forgot to ask you this morning! Our computer like crashed again, so I was wondering if you could, like fix it for us one more time?"

"Fine, I already finished my homework anyway." He figured that the only thing he had to do when he got home was to feed his pet turtle, Tortue.

"Oh thanks! You are like the sweetest!" Yvie leaned down to give him a small hug, however Hero took a few steps back to avoid her. "You are so cold!"

"Coming from the person who just said I was the sweetest."

"Can we hurry up! It is really cold outside, and I don't want to get sick! Ren's birthday is this Thursday." Yates was jogging in place while the snow fell from the sky gently landing on his messy red hair.

All three of them walked off. The trip to the twin's house was a long and silent one, nobody really talked, but that was how it usually went. Their shoes crunching in the snow was the only sound that was heard for a long time.

When they finally got to the Yore house, it was almost a blizzard outside

"Wow! The snow is falling really fast!" Yvie spun around with her arms out.

"Can't we just go in! I can't even see the door." Yates complained pretending to have a hard time finding the door, then finally placed his hands on the door nob and pushed the door opened. Hero followed after Yates not wanting to stand in the snow either. "Come on Yvie! Mum made hot chocolate."

"Oh! Hot chocolate! My favorite!" She skipped into the house and took off her boots and jacket. She threw her backpack and school shoes onto the chair that was sitting next to the door. Yates did the same as well as Hero.

"Here is some mama's hot chocolate!" Mrs. Yore sung out as she danced into the entrance hall with two hot chocolates. She had bright red hair much like her daughter's and son's. It was pulled up into a bun that sat just a little off the top of her head. "Oh Hero! I didn't think you would come today. Would you like me to make some hot chocolate, honey?"

Hero shook his head. "No thanks."

"You sure? Aren't you just a little cold just wearing those shorts to school? Some hot chocolate could warm you up."

"I'm good, but thank you."

"Okay, well here you go my twin sweeties! Treat Hero kindly!" Mrs. Yore danced back out of the living room and into their kitchen.

"Sorry you know how mum can be sometimes." Yates itched his head.

"Sometimes? She is always like that! I loved it when I was like, nine, but it has gotten so silly." Yvie said starring at her cup hungrily before she sipped it a little.

"Well, our computer room is this way." Yates pointed to the opposite opening from the kitchen, as if Hero hadn't been at their house before.

Hero followed the twins, on the way to the room, her was studying the many full picture frames that hung in that hall way. All the frames held a single picture of one of the Yore family's relatives, from quite a few generations back, to the most recent kids, Yates and Yvie. The lighting in the hallway was perfect so you could see each face and detail on the frames. There was no dust on any of the pictures, and they seemed to sparkle.

Though one picture and frame stood different from the rest, it was the one right next to Mrs. Yore's. The dust was in layers, so many it would take a second of starring for someone who had never seen the picture before to realize exactly what or who it was. Although Hero knew what lay behind the dust covered glass in the neglected frame, Mr. Yore.

"And here we are, the computer room." Yvie said making him turn away from the twins father's picture and walk into the small computer room. He took a seat around the monitor and started to get to work on figuring out exactly what was wrong. After several minutes he found the problem and started on fixing it.

"Fixed." He said rubbing his eyes only a little later.

"Oh my gosh! That was fast! Thanks little buddy!" Yvie said smiling at the screen.

"It was just a small virus really, you had your firewall down for whatever re-"

"Okay!" Yvie said happily.

"Do you know what he is talking about?" Her brother asked.

"Nope, but that doesn't matter, the internet is fixed!"

Hero restrained himself from saying anything smart to her, or anything that would confuse her. Most people knew that the internet can't break down, even if it tired. He wanted to explain it to her, but he also didn't want to spend any more time away from his own home. "Bye." He said in a flat tone deciding finally on what to do.

"Wait! You're going to walk out in the blizzard?" Yates sounded more astonished then he was asking-a-question.

"Yes, I should be fine, my house is only a few steps away."

"Well, dinner is going to be soon, you can stay for it."

"I am not all that hungry today. It is also better to go now before it gets worse."

"Oh, okay."

Yvie looked at Hero. "Are you sure you don't want to like, have a sleep over or something?"

"No, I don't like sleep overs. Bye." He repeated walking out the computer room before they could say anything more. _Why are they acting so strange?_ Now that Hero was thinking about his day, well more like the past few months, things really seemed to be strange, or at least changing. It was strange how some student wrote a note to the substitute, Yvie and Yates had definitely been going through some changes, so it was only natural that they would be acting a little strange. Perhaps himself even had changed a little in the past few months, not to mention all the suicides that had happened. _No way it could be an illness, that just isn't possible._ He thought bitting his lip, _Maybe it is just so many things happening all at once. It could be mass hysteria. Really slow mass hysteria._

Putting his backpack on and slipping on his shoes, Hero opened the door and walked out to a flurry of small white flakes. He was well aware that the soft snow had really gathered up in the short time he had been at the Yore house when he stepped out and sunk in just so he could see the tops of his knees. "Snow..." Hero mumbled to himself before going back to his pervious thoughts, which lead him thinking back to the first death.

The first death started with a student in his class, Phillip Jones. He was much like all the other students in the class, nevertheless, there was something about him that Hero liked, and they easily became friends. _I was playing Othello with him,_ Hero started to think back to that day two months ago, _he noticed that class was about to start and had to go to the bathroom. Then just a few seconds later after he left..._ Hero stopped thinking about it too much. However Phillip had gotten from the classroom to the top of the building so fast, would never make any sense in his mind, it seemed to impossible to even happen.

Then again, despite it being possible or not, why would Phillip do that anyway? As far as Hero could ever tell, Phillip was generally an optimistic person, and at the time he didn't seem to have any problems. Letting all his thoughts go at once, he mumbled, "Couldn't be an illness..." and then opened the door, stomping the snow off his boots on the inside rug.

The room he was standing in was a small and round. It had book shelves covering most of the walls that were filled with books, probably enough to last a life time. Hero never really knew where most of these books came from, they were there when he got there. Though what he did know was that most of them were science related, text books or just science fiction novels. A few were historical fiction, and some were in different languages. Over all, Hero's dream was to one day read all the books that were in his small library.

Hanging his backpack pack on a wooden hook in the wall, he walked over to the bookshelves to find a book to read, which was when he found something very curious. "A fiction book, in the non fiction section?" When he had first got to this house, he had made sure that the books were organized so he wouldn't have to reorganize them ever again, how could he have missed it?

The book was old and worn, the edges were ripped, and there was a think layer of dust on the spine. It was lighter then what it looked like when picked up. Hero rubbed the dust off and reread the title of the book to make sure that he was mistaken. "The Ever Strange and Fascinating Idea of Time Travel." Yup, definitely fiction, no doubt about it, he thought staring at the book. It almost seemed silly that he missed this book. However he wanted to know more about the book, so he opened to the front page. "Every thing that is in this book is one-hundred percent true. This is not a work of fiction as many people might think. This very book only has seven copies so it can limit the number of fools that might pick this book up, hoping to get a fairy tale about time travel. Due to not enough time, this book has yet to be complete. The next page may be confusing at first, think of any questions you have, and you might just come up with an answer." Those were the last words in the whole book. For on the next page, it wasn't even a page at all, but a cut out, resembling ones that are seen in movies that conceal a secret gun or small weapon of choice. What was in the cut out wasn't a gun, it was something that the seven year old couldn't make out right away.

It was a broken metal clock gear, if all of it was there it would have probably have just barely been able to fit in the palm of Hero's hand. Picking up the broken gear and turning it a few times in his hands, Hero still didn't understand what the author could have been meaning by coming up with an answer, all it was was a piece of junk. "Perhaps thats all this book is, junk." Hero laughed a little putting the half of gear back in and closing the book. He had more important things to do then ponder about a stupid book and junk all evening.

The genius placed the book on a wooden table in the center of the room, he would have to remember to sort that later, for now he had to go feed Tortue, his painted turtle. Hero made his way into the living room were Tortue sat next to Hero's favourite chair. Obviously the small painted turtle was hungry as it had resorted to its natural instincts of clawing at the sides of it tank. "Hold on buddy, I'll get your food." With a crack he opened up a can of worms, dusted some calcium over them, and placed them in the tank.

The young boy would often watch his turtle until it was done eating, though tonight, the old book was drawing his attention more. It only took three minutes for him to give in and walk curiously over to the pile of square leather. "How old is this book anyway?" He asked himself looking at the publication date, and was surprised to see it was only about eight years old. "Then I guess the author wanted it to look old and beat up." Hero sighed looking at the authors name 'Treve Maltier'. He flipped the book over to look at where the summary would be and read, "I entrust my time left to the seven people that have been with me through thick and thin." Still no answers to what the book was even about, or why it was there. He opened the book and held the gear in his hand, then rereading the only page in the book. There was really only one question that Hero had in mind, "When did I get this book?"

That must have been the question that needed to be answered, because the gear started to shake in Hero's hands. A zipping sound followed causing Hero to drop the gear to cover his ears as the sound got louder and louder. He watched the gear as the edges started to shimmer and spark. The seven year old tired to back up in panic, though his foot caught on the leg of one of the wooden chairs and he fell down on the ground. The sparks were starting to pick up and shoot in every direction, Hero had a horrible feeling that his house was about to light on fire, and instead of calling out for help, or even trying to move, all he could do was sit there and squeeze his eyes shut, and wait for the worst.

Though it seemed like the worst was over when the zipping finally stopped. Hero opened his eyes expecting to see flames everywhere, but there was none, in fact Hero wasn't even in his house any more, he was in the local library.

Rubbing his eyes and blinking a few times, Hero was able to determine that he was definitely in one of the many isles stacked high with books, though something seemed off about the surrounding that he couldn't put his finger too, but just brushed it off. He picked up the gear, that had now just returned to its resting state, and started to walk down the isle. "Did this gear-" He started to question however stopped short seeing something completely bizarre, himself.

There was no questioning it, the person just a little bit in front of him, was himself about two years younger though, along with a two year younger Yates. Hero could feel his jaw drop just staring at the two both reading their own books. After a while Yvie's voice could be heard calling for Yates down one of the isles, so the twin brother got up and left his book unattended to go see what his sister needed.

Meanwhile little Hero was so concentrated on his own book that he didn't even notice that his older self was creeping towards him. Then younger Hero looked up suddenly, right where the older one was. Their green eyes locked, Hero felt his breath get caught in his lungs starring back at his younger self, waiting for him to question him. To relief, younger Hero just put his book down and jot down something on a sheet of paper then went running down one of the isles.

Hero was somewhat bewildered at the fiver year old Hero's actions. Though of course, Hero himself could remember this time, he was doing some report for school and he knew that when he really got into something, he could be oblivious to the world around him. Yet, there was still the certain strangeness that Hero couldn't quite figure out about the area and everybody in it.

Then younger Yates ran back quickly and grabbed one of the books on the table and yelled, "Coming! Just had to get my book! You have to look at it!" Then jogged back to meet up with his family. Right as he left, Hero came back, and had another book in his hands, and picked up the book he was reading perviously. Older Hero saw that the book he was carrying was the book that Yates had been reading! The books had gotten mixed up! Hero got a little closer to look at the book, and was right, when he was younger, he had accidentally taken the book Yates had been reading, the book with the broken gear in it! That was why the book was in the nonfiction section of his library. That was why he never recognized or noticed it, and more then likely that was why he owed the library money a few years back.

At that, the library started to melt, the books merged with the ground like dripping paint, and the desk and chairs became wooden blobs. Soon all of it disappeared into nothingness.

Hero found himself laying on the ground next to his wooden table back at his house. He was clutching the gear, which seemed like it was acting normal. He pushed himself up, and looked around his room, everything seemed right, and nothing seemed odd at all. Perhaps he had just dreamed all of that, but if so, it was a really vivid dream.

He rubbed his and leaned again the wooden table feeling slightly sick. "I have to call Yates." He decided and grabbed the phone.

The phone rang and rang before a hello came from Mrs. Yore.

"Hello, this is Hero, I was wondering if I could talk to Yates?" Hero could feel himself tripping over the words.

"Oh, sure honey, let me get him real quick." There was a moment of silence. Then he could hear in the back ground Mrs. Yore talking to her son. Then suddenly more silence.

"Yo." Yates said. "I didn't think that you would ever call. I forgot I ever gave you my-"

"You took my book." Hero said getting impatient with the small chat.

"What?"

"You took my book, and I took yours."

"When?"

"About two years ago."

"Wow! By photographic memory I didn't think that you could remember back two years ago!"

"Eidetic memory, and I'm surprised that you can't!"

"Its been two years!"

"It is your time travel book." Hero decided to finally try that to see if Yates could remember it.

There was a pause, then, "My what? Wait! I think I do remember that! I had to pay the library back because I lost it or something."

"You never lost it, I took it."

"That isn't cool man, I had to pay out of my own pocket."

"I had to pay too, because you took mine as well. So let me get to the point! I need you over here!"

"Why? I already paid for the book so you can keep it if you want. I don't-"

"I need you over here, bye." Hero hung up the phone hoping that Yates would just come over and talk with him.

It was just a moment before there was a soft knocking at his door, and Hero jumped up to answer it. Upon opening it he didn't just see Yates, but Yvie as well, he sighed, he wasn't much for discussing matters with people that weren't involved.

"So what is it Hero?" Yates said just walking into Hero's house. "It is freezing out there, so please don't let this just be about the book. I mean, I can't even see two feet in front of me it is snowing so hard."

"I like it like that! Makes you wonder, like, what it is like in the parts you can't see!" Yvie said smiling and walking in as well.

"Look Yates," Hero said picking up the book which contained the gear. "This was the book that you cheeked out two years ago."

Yates snatched the book from Hero and looked inside. "It is!" He pulled out the gear that was inside to inspect it, "But it wasn't broken."

Hero was taken aback by the news. How would the gear have broken if Hero never even touched that book until now? The genius tried to rack his brain back to the day he got it, but he didn't remember dropping the book, or anything else that could have shattered the gear.

"Yo, Hero, still with us?" Yates said followed by a pair of snapping figures in his face. Hero swatted them away.

"Oh well, maybe you can get your money back now!" Yvie clapped her hands at her own idea.

"No way!" Yates said looking more closely at the gear. "Now that I think of it, I think I was going to take this cog out and keep it, it is pretty cool after all..." He trailed off placing the gear clumsily back into its spot.

Hero winced at the thought of the gear braking any more, and he had a feeling it would if he let Yates keep it. "No! Actually I think I will take care of the book and gear. Anyway, I kind of paid for it."

"But I was the one that checked it out!" Yates argued back, which Hero knew this was going to be a hard battle to win.

"Obviously you can't be trusted with it because you forgot it!"

"The gear wasn't broken when I found it!"

"I haven't touched it until now!"

"Well why did you call me over if you aren't giving it back to me? Just let me have it!"

"It has to do with math!"

"Never mind you can keep it." Yates pushed the book into Heros' hands.

Hero smiled at his triumph but it didn't last for long. The opening ridges of the book were letting out the bright light from the gear. Hero could hear a muffled zipping sound and his heart started to race. He hugged the book close to his chest praying that nothing was going to happen again. "You guys should go. Bye." Hero said feeling the gear vibrating horribly through the book. The white flakes exploded out of the book causing Hero drop it. He closed his eyes not wanting anything to be true, he didn't want the Yore's knowing about the time travel, he just wanted to know weather the gear had always been broken.

The white flurry slowed down to reveal, Hero's house. Hero opened his eyes slowly and took a deep breath looking down at the book that now lay open on the floor. It didn't seem like they had gone back and time, nonetheless Hero's legs were still unsteady and found himself having to sit down.

The young boy peered at the two confused twins, both looking like they wanted to ask a question, no doubt the same one, "Hero," Yvie was first to start, "what was that?"

Hero shifted uncomfortably on the chair he had taken a seat on. "It wasn't anything." Though he doubted that would pass as a liable reply, what happened was just too big to be nothing.

"Hero, seeing someone do an ollie on a longboard is nothing. Seeing a bird flying is nothing. Whatever that was, it was definitely something!" Yates's eyes now fell on the gear in the book that was still shinning.

With no intentions on telling the twins anything about the strange time traveling gear, Hero decided he had to come up with something fast. "Well this book is about time travel, though there are no pages in the book, so some stupid kid must have glued the page together, cut out a square, and then put some contraption in the cut out... so with that all said, this gear must have a button on it that is hidden so that when someone presses it..." Hero's voice started to fade away, neither of the red heads face's expressed that they were convinced. He didn't blame them, no one would fall for some kid off the street was able to build a complicated contraption that made a light show. He needed to become a better liar. "A way to travel back in time." Hero mumbled.

"Wow! That is so cool!" Yvie reached for the gear, however Hero was quicker to the floor and snatched it up. "You don't have to be so snappy!"

"So that thing was trying to send us back in time?" Yates said with an almost evil grin on his face. "We could all just go back in time and get a one-hundred on every test! This is great!"

"It will not be used for that!" Hero snapped, looking at the gear again, it was still shinning. "You can't just go back whenever you want! Do you want the world to blow up?"

"What do you mean?" Yvie asked sounding a little frightful.

"I mean, if you change one simple thing in time, it could wind up in a chain reaction that could be bad or good." Maybe the bad wouldn't be the world blowing up, but if it got the twins to stop asking questions about it, then to Hero the world would blow up.

Yates bit the inside of his cheek in thought. "So what are we supposed to use it for?"

Hero watched the gear carefully not really paying any attention to Yates's question. He noticed that the gear had yet to stop glowing, and that the ridge on the middle was slightly lighter then the rest of it. "We have to get back to the future."

Yvie cocked her head. "What do you mean get back to the future?"

"Well for one, this thing doesn't stop once your headed for the past."

"So we are like in the past! That is totally cool!"

"To get back we have to understand what the thing is trying to tell us, we have to answer a question." Hero explained using his knowledge of his first trip. After all, he was wondering where he had gotten the book from, and it was answered. Also the erie note on the first page of 'having a question, and it might be answered'. Then, what was the question that sent them back in time this time? Hero hadn't thought of anything the whole time he had the book. "Wait! Yates what were you thinking when you passed the book to me? What was the question you were thinking of?"

Yates looked startled. "I was thinking why this gear is so important."

Hero slapped his forehead. "Just great! Just great! How are we suppose to find the answer to such a general question!" He felt so much rage at Yates's stupid question that he could have thrown the gear out the window. A gear could be used for a multiple number of things, there would be no easy way to just figure it out.

"How do you know that we are in the past anyways?" Yvie asked.

"Look at my calendar I cross off every day, we are almost a whole two months back in time."

Yvie went over to inspect the calendar almost as if to check to see if Hero was correct. She then smiled and whirled back around to her brother and Hero. "Guess what day it is!"

"October fourth." Hero answered in melancholy. He still couldn't think of why today was so special.

"It is the day before the first suicide!" Yvie said still looking rather proud of herself, which was followed by a frown and down caste eyes. Probably from the memory of the first suicide.

Hero blinked and looked at the clock, it was about noon. He was amazed at Yvie's fast recollection of the event that would happen in less then twenty-four hours. Though he was more amazed at himself for not remembering right away.

Yvie smiled. "Maybe the gears have something to do with them!"

Hero picked up the gear and held it out in the center of his palm. He looked around the room, none of his furniture was melting into the ground. "Maybe Hero mumbled, he didn't want to discount the theory, but nothing was happening.

Yates grabbed the gear from Hero's hand startling the seven year old. "What are you doing? Give it back!"

The teen lifted the gear out of Hero's reach. "Give me a chance, I want to look at it."

"You can look at it later! We need to find out how to get out of here." Hero aruged starting to jump for the gear.

Yates ignored him, and he gave the gear a good look over. He started to walk forward watching the brightly lit part of the gear with his blue eyes. He walked out of Hero's house and up to the street that lay horizontal from how he was standing, Hero quickly followed the older boy wondering what he was doing. Then the seven year old saw the small light transfer to the right side of the gear. Yates turned to the right, and the light went to the front of the gear again. "Ha, it is like a video game."

Yvie caught up to the two boys. "So what is that thing supposed to do?"

"It will lead us to where we need to go." Hero said plainly looking ahead of him. There was still no snow on the ground, and the weather was still a little bit too warm for a heavy coat. He was just a little happy he didn't have one on, unlike the two twins.

"So it is an old fashion GPS?" Yvie giggled at her own joke.

Hero sighed, he wasn't in the mood for jokes, he wanted to find out what this gear was going to lead them too. Was what Yvie said even true? No, he told himself, it couldn't be, the first death was at the school, which is left, not right. "Lets see where this leads us." He mumbled starting to walk off in the direction the gear was telling him to go. Yates gave Yvie a sideways glance and followed Hero, still holding the gear and watching for any changes in direction.

As they walked, Hero noticed something that he didn't really notice in his first trip, what was off about the past. Every colour seemed faded and old looking, like in an old movie. Even the people the streets looked it, while himself, Yvie, and Yates both looked normal coloured. Hero took a sharp right when Yates mentioned that the gear had changed, then a sudden left soon after that. They crossed the Starr Mountain highway until they were standing right in front of a huge white arch that lead into an opened building.

"Aw man, I think it ran out of battery." Yates had a frown on his face, the whole gear dimmed.

"No, I think we are here." Hero could only guess that whatever the answer was, it laid in that building. The only sound was an echoing voice of someone giving a lecture from inside, however it didn't seem like the person who was going to die was anywhere in sight.

"So..." Yvie's voice broke through Hero's thoughts. "Like what are we going to do now. Looks like a dead end."

"We have to go in there." He pointed to the big arch. "Whatever we need is in there." It was only a guess, but it was the only one that made sense in his opinion. So with a big breath, Hero strolled inside.

Inside, there was plenty of white chairs that were all organized into rows facing the stage at the very end of the building, however not too many of the chairs held any people. As for the people that were sitting there, all looked bored and unamused at the guy in the front who was trying to educate them on something.

The person who was speaking was a thin man with light brown hair, neatly brushed back and out of his face. He was wearing a white lab coat with white pants, the dress shirt underneath was a light salmon colour, and he wore a bright red bow tie. Though the strangest part about him, was the dark purple out line around him.

"You see!" The man exclaimed walking over to a cream coloured sheet that was covering something with an odd shape to it, and it was about half the height of the man, but the actual object was probably sitting on a sort of table. He pulled off the sheet and revealed a shiny metal box, that appeared to have some sort of clock attached at the top. The thing all together was only about two feet tall, and it didn't look too sophisticated. "This is what was believed to be a time machine!" Some people in the crowed whispered to them selves. "You may think that this is a fake, and that time travel is impossible. So, I am hear to suggest, no, prove," the audience looked rather confused now, "you see, I am a bit skeptical of the fact as well. However my friend the late professor Maltier, believed strongly in this theory as I am sure many of you know."

Hero zoned out at the mention of Maltier's name. "I entrust my time left to the seven people.." He mumbled.

"You what?" Yates asked.

By the time Hero focused back in, the man up front was already starting to talk about how the theory worked. "You see, time travel is not as loose as it is shown in most movies. If we take a look at the closed timelike curve, or CTC, of an object, which are backed by several general relativity solutions. Ones such as traversable wormholes." He paused for a second nervously rubbing his hands together. "CTCs could very well be the lead to time travel, but only backwards, and only into an objects past. Of course as most you here know, we would use light cones to generate this. Too extreme levels of these light cones, we can position them to a point where they will loop back, so the object would come back to where it started. And the start is only an option, the objects future light cone would include space-time points both forward and backward in its past, allowing the possibility of time travel." There was a sign from the man as he looked out into the crowed of empty thinkers. "I will rest here and come back for questions and a more in depth explanation." The man said covering up the old machine. At that queue, Hero walked up to the man. He didn't really take any notice weather Yvie and Yates followed or not.

"Sir?" Hero asked completely on a limb.

"Oh please call me Dr. Aaron, sir sounds-" He stopped speaking in shock that a young boy was standing there. "Err, are you the one who asked for me?"

"Yes," Hero nodded. _So, the people with the purple outlines can see me. Explains why younger me didn't say anything._ "I was wondering if you were one of the Professor Maltier's closets friends."

Dr. Aaron almost seemed perturbed by the question. He rolled his shoulders before answering. "Well, yes. One of his eight."

"Eight?" Hero narrowed his eyes.

"He trusted me with his treasure of a contraption!" Dr. Aaron briskly said.

"One without the gears to make it work?" Hero said with a matter-of-fact tone.

"H-how could you have known that? Unless..."

Hero flashed the half of gear at the Doctor. "Does this prove your theory?"

"What- how?" Aaron shook his head. "Never mind, I don't care how you got it, I think that you should give that back to its right full owner." The man tried to take the gear from Hero, however the young boy was just a tad quicker and jumped back.

"Not yet." Hero said in a taunting tone. "Why is this thing so important to you? Why it is so important?"

"Well obviously it belongs to the time machine! And-" The man paused, pressing his lips together. His appearance suggested that he was in thought.

"And what?"

"It can lead me to the other six gears. Now that I answered your questions let me have it! It looks like you already broke it." He grumbled trying once again to take the gear out of Hero's hand.

"Wait." Hero stepped aside and the clumsy adult fell to the ground. "Why couldn't he trust one person to take care of all the gears and the machine? And why couldn't that person be you?"

Dr. Aaron got up and brushed his suit off and wrinkled his nose. "I don't know! If you ask me, Maltier was a first class nut case. He never knew what he was talking about! I guess it was just one of his crazy ideas to split up the gears."

Hero nodded. "Okay." Then turned around and started walking back to the twins.

"Wait!" Hero turned around to look at Dr. Aaron. "You promised something."

"I promised nothing."

"You said you would give me the gear!"

"I never implied such a thing." Hero said cooly. "Now lets not make a scene."

Obviously flustered, the red face Dr. Aaron turned around and walked behind his contraption.

"Is it time to leave yet?" Yvie said with a yawn. Hero noticed the grand hall starting to fade and melt into black, then into Hero's house. Before doing anything else, Hero looked at his calendar, it was the correct day. He heaved a sigh and felt just a little dizzy.

"I have a question." Yates said.

"Hold it!" Hero snapped, he place the gear carefully back into the book that was still laying on the floor then back on the shelf. "Just in case, we don't want to go back to the past."

"Why was it that you were able to talk to Mr. Switcher but to nobody else?" Yates asked.

"I'm not really sure, though I think it might have been because Dr. Aaron knew Professor Maltier personally."

"Who is that?" Yvie's voice was still tried from the nauseating trip to present time.

"He is the guy that had made the time machine and put the gear in this book." Hero pointed to the leather book.

"So, why don't we like, go back and see the guy that made this gear and ask him all the questions?"

Hero started to think, that was a really good idea, though something inside him doubted it would work. "I don't know, that seems, too easy."

"Sometimes things are easy Hero!" Yvie said smiling. "Just ask it, see if it works!"

He moaned not wanting to make yet another trip in time, however got the gear back out. "Can you show us who made you?" The gear started to shine, though after the first spark stopped and went back to being normal. Hero looked at Yvie with a what-did-I-say-look.

"Guess I was wrong." Yvie sighed.

"Then I guess this thing can't answer every question. Only ones it knows, but I wonder how it knows them?" Hero jumped a little realizing he was still holding the gear, though nothing happened and a great feeling of relief sparked through Hero before he put the gear away.

"Well, it seems a little pointless if it can't answer every question." Yates said rubbing his cheek and looking out the window. "Cool, but useless."

"Oh don't say that!" Yvie said glaring at her brother. "I'm sure we have to do something with it! Right Hero?"

Hero frowned a little. "I really don't know Yvie." Thinking about the chat with Dr. Aaron, he had mentioned eight friends, but in the book, Maltier only said seven. "I'll see you guys at school." They said there good byes and walked out of the door back to their house.

There had to be something up with that machine, why would Maltier give Aaron the shell, but not the gear? Wouldn't that be easier, just to have everything all together? Unless the professor didn't trust Dr. Aaron, but then couldn't he trust someone else, he said he entrusted the other seven, but not enough to let one person have the time machine in whole? There was something new that popped into Hero's head, he hadn't even been using a time machine to jump back and forth through time. So why was it needed? Sure the jumps aren't complete, but that could be due to only having half of the gear, or not having the other six and a half. Though maybe if they were all together in the machine, it would do something special. Hero felt like no matter how many questions he tried to answer, a few more came up. Soon he just let his brain drown in questions, and went off to bed.

The next day came and Hero woke in a bit of a haze. No longer was he really sure weather everything that happened really happened, or if it was just a dream. He hoped and pleaded that it was all just a made up fantasy in his mind, and that time travel was still just a plot point in science fiction novels.

Although as soon as Hero stepped out of his house Yvie called over to him, "Hero, can you believe yesterday? We like actually totally went back in time! Oh my gosh it was so exciting wasn't it?"

"It was," Hero tried to come up with a word for his feelings about it, "different. Yvie, just don't tell anybody about it, okay? Is Yates taking the long way again, I need to tell him that too."

"Nope." Yates answered behind Hero. The younger boy turned around to see that Ren was with him.

Hero grimaced and narrowed his eyes. "Ren go ahead of us."

"No thanks." The older boy said squatting next to Hero and wrapping one arm around his neck.

"It wasn't a question." Hero crossed his arms and looked away. "Also get your arm off of me, I don't like being touched." Of course, he would have taken being touched over what Ren did next. The older boys thick, wet, index finger was shoved into Hero's ear and twisted around several times. Hero shivered and screamed, "You're gross! Get it out!" He shoved himself to the right to escape from Ren.

Yates and Ren both laughed, while Yvie tried to cover up her giggles. Hero balled up his fist and started to walk off. "Yvie, Yates, I have to talk to you later, I know we have more to do from yesterday." He looked back to notice them both smiling, and Ren looking confused. "Why are you two so happy?"

"You said we." They both answered.

"So?"

"You never say 'we' which means you want us to come along with you!"

"I wouldn't have to do this if Yates never picked up the stupid book in the first place. Just don't think that I want to do this."

"He so likes us!" Yvie skipped along the snow covered sidewalk.

"What was that about?" Ren asked, though never got any real answers.

_\----_

"Hello class." Mr. Campbell said walking through the door. At once all the kids sat down and said hello back to their older teacher. "First things first, sorry Hero I forgot to write a note explaining that you are not a confused second grader to the substitute."

"Apology excepted." Hero said flatly.

"Now continuing on, you will have a test on the latest history chapters on Thursday, we will be reviewing tomorrow." Ren raised his hand. "And no Ren, just because Thursday is your birthday doesn't mean that I'm going to post pone the test." At that Ren's hand fell back down and he looked rather disappointed.

When the history class started, Hero sunk into his seat and started to think about the time travel. He was still confused about almost everything, and as much as he wanted to leave the whole thing in the past, he couldn't mange it, his mind would just wonder right back to all his questions.

Soon he just gave up trying to think about what he didn't know, and reviewed what he already knew. He knew there were a total of seven gears that would go into a time machine, he already had half of one. Though he didn't know why the time machine was needed if just a half of gear by itself can time travel by itself. He left that and continued with the next thing he knew, Maltier trusted seven people. Weather these seven people had gears or not, Hero couldn't really tell for sure, but it was a good place to start. Of course he didn't know who anyone was. He speculated that perhaps the six of the seven people that committed suicide could have been the gear holders.

"Hero!"

"Yes." He responded quickly rubbing his eyes.

Mr. Campbell pointed to the clock and smiled. "The bell rang a minute ago. You didn't say anything in class, not even when Yates mispronounced words. Are you feeling all right?"

"Just fine." Hero said shortly getting up and leaving the room. He decided that it would probably be best just to talk to Yvie and Yates after school about everything, and concentrate on school for the time being.

_\-----_

"Yvie, Yates."

"Hi Hero, are you ready to go back?" Yvie asked eagerly. "What are we going to do? How far are we-"

"I don't know!" Hero cut her off. "I wanted to ask you two something." Both the twins looked at him like he had something odd on his face but waited until he asked his question. With a big breath Hero started. "Your dad-"

"Yvie I'm going home if you need me I'll be there." Yates said starting to walk off.

"Wait! Yates, you can't just like leave!" Yvie whined. "Hero needs us."

"Well, why does he need to pull our dad into it." Yates stopped walking but didn't turn back to look at the other two.

"Maybe our dad can help-"

"If he could help he would have never left us in the first place!"

"I'm sure he didn't, like, want to leave or anything."

"Didn't? Of course he wanted to leave! That is why he killed himself!"

The tension was getting higher and higher, and the silence wasn't helping anything. Hero raced through his head for something to say that might help Yates calm down. "Yates, your father was a very good man, and an excellent engineer. In fact he did more then just engineering right? Didn't he have a different job?"

Yates sighed and answered to Hero's relief. "Yeah, he was working as some sort of a scientist-"

"Oh!" Yvie gasped. "Yeah I remember that! That was like a really, really long time ago! Hero wasn't even born yet!"

"Do you know weather he worked with Professor Maltier? Or talked about someone with that name?" Hero asked desperately.

Both the twins reminded silent in thought. It took a while but Yates finally spoke up and turned back to face Yvie and Hero. "I donno, he might have. I wasn't really paying any attention."

"Oh my gosh! Yes he did!" Yvie said out of nowhere. "I remember on one of his notes to me in the morning, he talked about Mr. Maltier! I think they were college buddies."

"Good. Then lets head to my house so we can-"

"No."

"What, Yates don't be a sour puss." Yvie's frown was overdramatized.

"Yvie, Hero wants use to go back in time and watch our father die! Do you really want to live through that?"

The red headed girl opened her mouth, nonetheless she just sighed and grimaced. She was probably about to defend Hero's choice, though the words of her brother seemed to click faster. "Um, I don't know..." She said slowly looking down at her feet. "Maybe since we are going back in time, we can stop our dad, right Hero?"

The instant Yvie said that Hero felt the pressure of the two teens staring at him, he knew the right answer, but he also knew what they wanted to hear. "I don't think that is possible, we don't want to mess up the present or the future."

"So you just expect us the take some stupid gear from our father and then leave him! We aren't even sure if he has it! It is just some guess!" Yates argued. "C'mon Yvie lets go home."

"Wait! Maybe the gear is still at your house? Your father had an office didn't he?" The young genius said in distress. The jump in time and getting the gear, in all likelihood would have been easily done by himself. All though he didn't want to try to take something from the Yore's father without their consent.

"We packed all his stuff up." Yates' voice was getting colder. "Mom threw out all the junk. Why do you even want to get all these gears, not like you have any reason for time traveling."

There was no denying that fact, no one said he had to get all the gears, nor build any time machine. "Aaron is looking for them, and he isn't a good person." Of course that wouldn't be a good enough excuse for Yates.

"Just make sure he doesn't find that broken one."

"But..." Hero sighed and looked down in defeat. Of course he wasn't sure if he could call it that, why should he be bothered with finding all the gears? He couldn't even justify it to himself. "I'll just go by myself then." He said despite his best judgements.

Yates didn't say anything he just shoved his hands into his coat pocket and started to walk back to his house. However, his sister stood looking back and forth. "Yates!" She whined taking a small step towards him. "We can't just let Hero go by himself! Like, what if Aaron like comes around? He is way, way bigger then Hero!"

Personally Hero wouldn't say that Aaron was 'way, way bigger' then him, and of course it was highly unlikely that he would just come around, though Hero didn't say anything against it, whatever would get Yates to go back in time, was fine by him.

It took a few moments, but finally Yates turned around and just sighed. "Fine, but only because I don't want anything happening to Hero's brain. I still need it for homework."

Yvie clapped and smiled. "Yay! We're going back in time again!" She skipped and hopped all the way back to Hero's house, while her bother and Hero trudge behind her in the deep snow covered sidewalks. Hero kept his head down, hiding his childish smile of victory.

By the time the small group walked into Hero's entrance room, Hero had already thought up the question and gathered up the gear quickly. The two teenagers and the young kid all sat around the table. The older of the party of three looked like they had left earth and were somewhere else. Hero cleared his throat to get there attention back and held out the gear. "What happened to Mr. Yore?"

The sparks flew from the gear, the zipping sounded like it was loud enough to be heard miles away, and the blinding whiteness spun around the trio. Then it slowed to a stop and the sparks fell to the ground and extinguished their bright white light, exposing the time and area it had sent them too.

The sidewalk that they all were on was busy with people returning from work ready to get home. They rushed with coffee in their hand, ties loose, and their suits unbuttoned, or hair undone. The cars on the road were bumper to bumper but that didn't slow them down. Looking to the left, all the high school kids that walked home were just getting out of school. Out of those kids Hero could spot himself and the two Yore twins along with Ren.

The grayish people walked on and Yvie was the first to say anything. "Well, I think this was the way our dad use to take. Um, remember when he would like meet up with us and walk back to the house with us Yates?" Her brother didn't respond so she continued. "This was, like, the first day he didn't." She added a bit more hushed.

"October 12th." Yates sounded melancholy. "The day he left us, of course he wouldn't come to walk home with us."

"He didn't mean it!" Yvie argued.

"It was his choice! I don't see any other way!"

"Maybe he tripped."

"Tripped? From the top of a bridge that wasn't even on the way to our house? Yvie c'mon that doesn't even make any sense!"

"Then lets head to the bridge." Hero stepped between them, he really didn't care to hear for them argue.

"So you are going to make us watch him die!" Yates' voice was getting a little higher and he bent down just a little so he was hovering right over Hero.

The younger boy stepped back. "No, just that would be the place to catch him."

The red head stood up straight and crossed him. "Then lets just get this over."

Sighing, Hero started to walk down the street in the direction that would get him to the large bridge crossing the river. The bridge was only six years old, so it was fairly new, and one of the Mr. Yore's greatest achievements. Before their dad died, nearly all the Yore family would talk about how Mr. Yore spent time and time over the bridge design, trying to make it perfect. The Yore's father had often spent a lot of time complaining about having to go too far out of the way to get to the other side of town, Yvie often told Hero that their dad complained so much that they decided to higher him and tell him to do it by himself. Hero was a little skeptical of that story, though he knew that it ended with the bridge being built and being such a success that they named it 'Yore Bridge'.

Finally the bridge came into sight. Hero looked up and down, left and right. He started to feel just a little panicked, what if he missed him? Would they be able to get back to their time? Hero felt a large knot in his stomach and he ran over to the edge of the bridge and started looking up and down frantically, though he still didn't catch the sight of the older man.

Just as he was about to call over to the Yore twins to explain, he caught the small sight of something red in the air. He looked up to see a man falling from the arch at the top of the bridge! The young boy ran to the other side of the bridge not caring if the twins saw him leave or not. His heart skipped a beat as he tripped and skidded on the narrow sidewalk on the edge of the bridge, his feet just barely catching the curb of the cement so he didn't fall through the bars of the bridge and into the torrent of waves below. He gulped looking down at the monstrous water before lifting his head up to see a body falling. Straining himself, he reached out as far as he could hoping Mr. Yore would latch on, and he did.

Though things started to look down from there. Sadly Mr. Yore was a fifty one year old man, while Hero was only seven, and had no superhuman strength. The genius felt his feet starting to slip from the curb and his whole body being pulled against the rough sidewalk. _Oh, please don't let this be the end of me too!_ Hero prayed, closing his eyes. Though it seemed luck was on his side, before he completely fell over, two sturdy and strong hands were placed around Hero's ankles.

"I can't let you leave me too!" Yates said starting to pull on Hero's legs. Of course Yates's pulling didn't help anything, other then Hero's feeling of being ripped in two.

"Yates!" The young boy's voice was pinched. "Call for your sister! I can't hold all his weight!"

"Who's? Eh, never mind. YVIE! YVIE! WE NEED YOU!" The older red head called. There was a clicking sound that Hero identified as Yvie's shoes. "Yvie, Hero needs to talk to you."

Hero looked to his side to see that Yvie was also leaning over the edge of the bridge, although she wasn't looking at him, she was looking in horror at her dad dangling off the bridge. Then Hero started to speak. "Okay, Yvie, I need you to swing yourself down to the bottom beams of the bridge, and then grab your dad's hand." He took in a sharp breath before continuing. "Mr. Yore, I need you, when you see your daughter's hand, to grab it firmly and make sure you don't slip."

Mr. Yore was looking up in shock, and Hero wondered if he would agree to save his own life or not. Though to relief, he nodded his head and said, "I understand."

With that said, Yvie got up, then after a second was pulling herself through the top bars and starting to climb down to the support beams below. He crossed them slowly until she was on the one closest to her dad, and reached out one of her hands, and she kept the other one planted on a vertical beam. Her father then reached out his spare hand and grasped onto her hand. He swung over to the beams, his daughter moving over to make room for him.

Hero didn't see what happened next because he was pulled up quickly by Yates. "My dad is he...?"

"Why don't you see for yourself." Hero said rubbing his scratched up belly.

Yates did the same thing as Yvie, only a little quicker and disappeared below the bridge. There was a small gasp, and Hero could tell that Yates was surprised to see his dad still standing there alive.

That is when it hit Hero. He just changed to course of time. Out of impulse he stopped Mr. Yore from killing himself. The seven year old felt his knot in his stomach return, he couldn't blame himself too much, if he didn't save Mr. Yore then perhaps they would have been stuck two months in the past. Though, now what if the whole two months in the future is different because he saved a life? Hero moaned a little then followed the rest of the Yore family down into the support beams.

There, Yates was standing facing his dad. "Why did you leave me?"

Mr. Yore had a sad and confused look in his eyes. "What do you mean? I never left you! Just a few minutes ago I was heading to pick you guys from school. You know I would never think about leaving my family."

His son looked down into the waves below. "Then why did you commit suicide?"

"Suicide?" Mr. Yore stepped a little closer to his son, but Yates also stepped backwards. "Do you mean falling from the bridge? I don't even know how that happened." The older man scratched the back of his head. "How did you three know what was going to happen? Or even that I was going to die?"

Yates looked like he was about to start arguing again, but he just looked at Hero. "Uh, well... Hero, you want to explain?"

"I guess it couldn't hurt. We already changed time as it is." The genius sighed. "Mr. Yore, we aren't really from this time."

"You aren't? So, you're proposing that you come from a different time?" The older man raised his eyebrows.

"Yes."

"So you knew I was going to fall, and more than likely die." Mr. Yore smiled out of the corner of his mouth. "You know what this means?" Hero was about to answer, but the Yore twin's father stepped closer to him and gave him a hug. "You time traveled! You did it!"

"Uh, yeah I guess." Hero said a little awkwardly. "Sir, do you have a clock gear?"

"A clock gear?" Mr. Yore let go of Hero showing his smile was even bigger. "Of course I do! Treve gave one to me." He dropped his hands into his pant pockets, when he brought them back up he was holding a silver gear similar to the one Hero had, except it was whole. "This is called the Travel Gear."

"They have names? Are they like little pets?" Yvie asked.

Mr. Yore gave a short laugh. "No, no honey, you see there are seven gears that do different things. I have the Travel Gear, Treve said that it supposedly allows you to travel from spot to spot in the same time period. Like teleporting."

"That is like so cool!" Yvie clapped her hands. "I wouldn't have to walk to school when it rained any more!"

"Now if I could figure out how to work it, then perhaps I would let you sweets. We could probably even use it for a business, make even more money then I am now!"

"Wait! Dad, I still don't get it." Yates crossed his arms frustrated. "Why did you jump off the bridge?"

"I really can't answer that one son." Mr. Yore confessed. "All I remember was walking home from work, then I was falling. I thought I might have been dreaming."

"Did you ask anything?" Hero said.

"Ask something?" The older gentleman tapped his foot on the support beam causing a metallic sounding echo. "Well I asked quite a few things, and I thought quite few things."

"Anything to do with this bridge?" Hero pushed on.

"I've always wonder what it would look like from a bird's eye-"

"View." Hero finished phrase hoping they wouldn't have to repeat saving Mr. Yore again. "I think the Professor designed these gears so they would be activated by a question."

"Very good thinking Hero, I always knew that you were smart. You know you would probably do really well in the engineering world. You have a mind for figuring things-"

"So," Yates said cutting his dad off. "It is all the Travel Gear's fault my dad died?"

"I am here know, as odd as that may sound." Mr. Yore turned and walked over to his son and they both embraced each other.

"I missed you so much dad!"

Mr. Yore stroked his son's red hair with one of his hands. "I'm sorry son, I should have probably been more careful." Yates pushed his father a way and looked him in the eyes. He then moved his hands quickly and tore the Travel Gear from his father's hands and backed away. "Yates what are you doing?" Hero figured that Mr. Yore knew exactly what Yates was about to do, but was at a loss of words.

"I'm getting rid of this thing! I don't want it to ever take you away from me again!" Yates's voice was cracking as he yelled as loud as he could. He swung his arm out to the sides of the beams, opened his hand, and let the gear fall.

Hero watched the gear falling down, father and farther away. A great rush of fear over took his thoughts, and for the second time that day, he didn't think. He jumped onto the same beam as Yates, then jumped off. He could hear Yvie screaming over the wind that was rushing past his ears. He lost sight of the gear when he jumped. The wind was getting faster and he was forced to squint his eyes.

_There!_

The gear was shimmering right to the left side of him. He reached out with his left hand against the force of the air. A hard, cold sensation went through Hero's hand and he wrapped it around the gear. Flipping over so is back was facing the crashing waves below his mind raced for a question. _Where are the Yore twins?_

Every thing started to spin. Hero couldn't concentrate on one thing, was he standing? Or was he still falling? Someone, or possibly something, grabbed his arm. The spinning was slowing down, though his vision was so blurry he couldn't make out anything. His hearing wasn't any better either, there were sounds, but nothing he could make out. He gave up on trying to make anything out and let his eyes close.

_\-----_

The tan couch that Hero was laying on was really comfy. Although, why he was laying on it, and how he ended up on it was still a mystery. His head felt heavy, but he lifted it up to look around. There was a family portrait hanging on the wall opposite from him, right above a fake fire place. The faces were hard to make out at first, he could tell there were four people in it, all with red hair. Relief coursed through his veins, he was in the Yore's living room.

"We have already had the bungee jumping conversation honey." Hero could hear a kind female voice say.

"Yes, yes we have, but they don't remember it." A male voice said with a light heartedness in his voice.

"Yeah! I want to hear it!" It was a female voice, but it sounded younger then the first.

"Well, I think we should check on Hero first." The first female voice said. "It has been an hour."

At that, Hero pushed himself up so he was sitting on the couch and watched as Mr. and Mrs. Yore and Yvie walked into the living room. Yvie smiled and hugged Hero. "You're awake! I was, like, so worried about you!"

"I'm okay." Hero looked past her and at Mr. Yore. "Are we still in the past? What about the present Yvie and Yates?"

"Don't worry," Mr. Yore said bending down next to his daughter so he could look at Hero. "You returned shortly after you blacked out."

"Oh, hun, do you need anything?" Mrs. Yore asked also coming over to stand around Hero.

He wanted to say that he was starting to feel squished being in the middle of so many people. Though he didn't want to be unnecessarily rude. "Nothing, thank you." Yvie removed her arms and Hero sighed. "I should probably go back home." He tried to stand up, but his head was still spinning and he wound up back on the couch. "Wait!" He panicked, patting himself and looking down and around the couch. "Where are the gears?"

"Over there." Mr. Yore pointed to a white, round coffee table next to the couch that housed both the travel and time gears. "It probably wasn't safe to keep them on you."

"Mom, we need more milk." Yates said walking into the room, he had a disconcert look on his face. "You should have just let it fall." The older boy muttered walking past Hero and into the hallway.

Mr. Yore nodded and forced a smile. "We'll get it this afternoon." Of course Yates had already disappeared into the long hallway.

"Yates is like acting totally not cool! Dad is back and all he does is like mope around and act like a total sour puss!" Yvie crossed her arms and made one of her theatrical faces to show she was upset.

Hero's eyes went wide. He knew he was changing history when he saved their dad, but it just now hit him that things might be different, either bad or good. The panic he felt was growing fast, he looked out the window in their living room, only to see that it was still snowing outside. Mr. Yore laughed and sighed. "Don't worry, not much has changed other then there is one other person in the world."

"I have a question."

"What is it?" Mr. Yore answered assuming the question was for him.

"You knew Professor Maltier," Hero started trying to find the right words to ask. "So, do you know anything about six other gears, maybe who they belonged too?"

The older red head scratched his head in thought. "Well I know there are others, yes. What each and every one of them did, I couldn't really answer that one, I just figured out how to use mine." He laughed at the part then continued. "Though there were eight of us. Lets see, there was me, Edward, Viktoriya," He started to count off on his fingers. "Ethan, Yoyo, Celeste, Aaron and..." He bit his lip, "Somebody else, I never meet him though. Also this other guy, I think his name was Ted something, anyways, he didn't work with us for that long, so I wouldn't bother counting him. Though he was a funny guy."

Hero nodded, despite not really learning much other then a few names. "Do you think you could write those all down for me? Including the last names." Mr. Yore nodded and strode into the kitchen for a pen and paper to write it down, his wife followed right behind him.

"Hey Hero." It was Yvie.

"Yes?"

"I think I recognize those names." Hero expected to see her smiling like she usually did when she remembered something useful, though the look she had on her face was completely opposite from that, grave and sullen.

"From where?" He could guess where this was going.

"The news." He was right. "They are all the people that died. Not Dr. Aaron, but like, every one else, oh and Ted. I don't remember that name at all."

Hero shrugged his shoulders, he honestly wasn't sure if he cared about the others. Yvie and Yates had their dad back, and that was good enough. As long as he

kept the two gears he had, then maybe he didn't have to get them all. Though he couldn't help to think that he actually time traveled, and he might have been one of the first, if not the first to do such a thing. Not to mention all the questions he could answer, and the new found science he stumbled on. Maybe if he could rebuild the time machine, it will be more efficient then the gears. In a lot of ways, letting the whole thing go was nice, and Hero could continue on with his life as normal, but in so many more ways it was tempting to be the one that proves time travel. "Looks like we'll have some work to do."

"Okay, here you go Hero." Mr. Yore said walking back in with all the names. Hero grabbed it from him and looked at it, Edward O'Leary, Viktoriya Nikolin, Ethan 'Walrus' Kerr, Momoe 'Yoyo' Tanaka, Celeste Spinster, Aaron Switcher. "Every one on the list was at Treve's and his wife's funeral."

"He had a wife?" Hero asked a little curious about her now. Perhaps she had the other half of this gear.

"Oh yes, she was a nice woman, a little strange, but she was character! She came from Korea you know."

"Was she a scientist too?"

"Oh no, I think she actually was just a stay at home wife."

Hero frowned, looking down at the list again. He already knew Aaron didn't have a gear, so that left him one short. It was either that Ted guy, or the other guy that Mr. Yore didn't know. "Thank you." The genius said nodding his head. "I think I'll go home-wait, also, is Maltier his actual name?"

"Oh no, just a pen name really."

"Do you know his real name?"

"Nope."

"What?"

"Can't say I ever heard it, he always called himself that, but he did tell us one time that it was just a pen name, but I don't remember him telling us his real one."

"Does any one know?"

"I would say his parents, but I don't think they are around any more. Maybe his wife, but she died the same day as Treve and never told anybody if she knew."

"So no one you can think of?"

"Not a soul."

Hero titled his head. "Then I guess I'll head home. I have to feed Tortue." He said his goodbyes to everyone, well except Yates who was hiding out in his own room, then left into the freezing cold over back to his house.

The afternoon sky was already a dark purple, though no stars could be seen from the glare that the streets lights were creating. The snow flakes were invisible as they fell except the ones that glistened in the rays of the street lights. Hero took one big step after another through the snow that was accumulating. There wasn't much good about winter, except the temperature, Hero loved the cold weather, it wasn't unbearable, or hot and sticky. Plus there wasn't a need for loud lawn mowers or leaf blowers, and it gave him an excuse to use his fireplace he loved so much. He could sit around in his favorite chair and read books to his heart content.

Sooner or latter, Hero made it back to his house. He feed Tortue, placed both the Time and Travel Gear into the book of time travel, finished getting ready for bed and fell asleep wondering exactly what he would to tomorrow.

 

 


	2. Knowledge & Memory

There was only two more days until his next meeting with Mrs. Holt. Hero was working hard on his college work when he made this mental count down. He had been seeing her for three weeks now, thats three days. She had never stopped being interested in his story, and only interrupted to ask for names or to repeat something again. He had never really been able to explain his story to anyone outside the small group, of course when he was younger he never wanted to talk about it, but now that he was doing it, it felt as though he had lost weight.

Hero rattled his pen between his teeth mindlessly. It was a nice day out, the view from his dorm room showed that the sun was beaming down onto the green grass outside in the court yard. There were plenty of people out there enjoying the day. Hero lifted his head up to get a better view but squinted at the bright sunlight. Reevaluating his choices, he pulled the curtains closed and turned on a dim lamp.  

He rubbed his face trying to get back into his school work. His eyelids were starting to get heavy, though he wasn’t tired. He was growing board with school, that worried him. He could mention that to Mrs. Holt. No. No, he couldn’t, he had to finish his story first. School could wait for his story. Hero went up to rub his face again, but stopped himself, he remembered he had just done it.

Those two days passed and Hero was in the horrid green waiting room. Despite having already sat in the room several times, he hadn’t acclimated to the wallpaper. The breathing and the arches never stopped. They continued to breed and imprint in Hero’s mind. He’d brought a book, but it wasn’t much use, the wallpaper had effected him on a deeper level.  

“Hero Switcher.” His name was his saving grace, he got up and parted ways with the wallpaper. He didn’t think about it when he was in Mrs. Holt’s room, he didn’t need to. “Hero,” Mrs. Clara Holt said once the two of them were in her room with the door tightly closed, “I was thinking about your story earlier today.” The nineteen year didn’t say anything, he waited for her to finish. “I noticed that you treated Dr. Aaron as if you didn’t know him. But he is your father, correct?” 

Hero nodded slowly, he didn’t even really notice. At the time he didn’t have much of a connection to his, to his, to Aaron. He figured he might mention that. “We weren’t really close at the time. The Yore’s were watching over me, he never really made any attempt to talk to me. He had changed.” 

“Changed?” 

There was definitely a frown on Hero’s face. He could feel it. It felt like two anchors attached to the ends of his lip, pulling them down farther and farther. Most people didn’t ask what he meant after he started frowning or apologized for asking. It didn’t seem that Mrs. Holt was going to let go that easy. “I, I am going to continue my story.” Hero bit his lip and let the anchors rise back up. Mrs. Holt just nodded, she didn’t seem too disappointed that he hadn’t told. He guessed that therapist were probably use to not getting their questions answered. 

The alarm clock buzzed two times before Hero’s hand swung down on it. The morning seemed hazy and dark, it didn’t seem to want to welcome the day that would soon come after. Despite that, Hero pulled himself up and walked starchily down stairs and into the kitchen. 

A soft thump sounded from his entrance room, which was followed by an even softer sound. Hero looked through the door way, into the unlit room. He squinted his eyes trying to make out shapes in the darkness. Stretching his arms he walked closer to the entrance way and was able to make out the shape of a book laying on the ground. His pulse slowed a little and he stopped walking, what exactly made that book fall off the shelf? Regardless of his worries, he continued into the room and placed the book back onto the shelf. 

Before walking back into the kitchen, Hero looked to see what book had fallen, the time travel book. He let his eye wonder to the ground, where the two gears were laying. “There is no point in hiding, I know you want the gear.” He yawned the last part out. Did Aaron know he head two gears? Hero made a choice to keep it safe and continue to just use the singular form. 

“How did you know I was here?” The voice was slightly higher pitched than normal. 

“Because inductive reasoning tells me that books don’t just jump from shelves, and you really want the gears.” Hero spun around and looked over at Aaron Switcher, who was holding some sort of black cylinder, probably a flashlight. He was wearing a too large black hoodie, however had bright white dress pants on. Hero let out a tiny giggle, the ‘house invader’ obviously never had any practice at what he was doing. 

The young man crossed his arms. “Just give me the gear.” 

“Nope.” Hero said simply picking up the two gears from the ground. “Why did you try to rob me while I was home?” 

“When are you gone?” 

“I have school to go to.” _How stupid is he? Did he glom his Ph.D?_

Dr. Aaron’s face was starting to glow a little red from frustration. “Whatever, just give up the gear!” He took a step forward and pulled a gun from behind his back. 

Hero stepped back into his bookcase. One of the books fell onto his head as he slid down onto the floor. His mind felt completely blank, Aaron didn’t seem like he would actually pull the trigger and kill him, but it was just a simple pull of the trigger. The young boy reached out and wrapped his hands around the gears. Maybe the gears could help him? He could go back in time, but he would just come back in the same spot. Teleporting! But what if Switcher pulled the trigger faster than he could think? The young boy pulled his knees up closer to his chest and clenched his fists tighter around the gears. 

“At a loss of words, Hero?” Dr. Aaron laughed. Hero continued to look at the gun in his hands. “Why don’t you just give up the gear?” The genius just continued staring, whatever he wanted the gears for couldn’t be good if he was willing to kill someone for them. “You don’t want me to take it do you?” 

Hero looked around for an escape. Aaron was only two or three steps away from him, there was just no way he could move away in time. So he just sat there and started to feel his body shaking. 

There was a sigh. “You do know what I mean by ‘take it’ don’t you?” Dr. Aaron’s trigger finger twitched and Hero flinched. “Well?” 

Before Hero had a chance to say or think of anything, there was a soft knocking at his door. “Hero? We’ve been waiting out here for like, ever! Are you all right?” It was Yvie! 

“Yes! I mean, no! Help!” Hero yelled. The door opened and the two Yore twins were standing in the door way. Yates’ head was down, though Yvie’s gasp caused him to look up and see the man standing across from Hero. 

“It is, like you! Mr. Switcher!” Yvie squeaked. “What are you, like doing at Hero’s?” 

Dr. Aaron clenched his teeth, though keeping his eyes and gun locked on Hero. “We are having a chat. It would be in your best intentions, and his, if you leave right now.” 

Hero stared at Yvie, shaking his head slowly. He looked at the gun in Aaron’s hand and hoped she understood his jester. The feeling of helplessness was only growing bigger having to rely on the Yore twins. 

“Um, but we totally have school today. Hero is like, such a stickler about that stuff.” Yvie understood, or at least he hoped so.

“That is too bad.” Dr. Aaron said looking over at Yvie. He lowered the gun just slightly, he was getting tired! Hero had to take his chance now or never, he let the gears lay on the floor and lunged himself at Switcher, catching him by surprise and knocking the man over. “You brat!” Aaron yelled trying to keep the gun out of the seven year old’s hands. 

Hero laid on top of Switcher’s chest reaching for the gun. One of his hands was able to attach to the wrist of the hand that held the gun, the other was trying to pull the man’s hand away from his chest. Then they both stopped fighting when a loud bang went off. There was a scream and a loud thump before Hero felt himself get thrown to the side. 

In panic, Hero scrambled up and looked to Yates and Yvie’s direction. They were both okay. It looked like Yates had pulled Yvie away from the direction of the bullet. Although, both the twins looked past Hero with big eyes. Hero turned his head and saw Dr. Aaron picking up the Travel Gear. 

“I win.” He proclaimed holding both the gun and the gear. “Now if you two move aside, I’ll be able to continue with my work and collect the rest of the gears, without you kids to interfere!” He pointed the gun at the twins and they made haste to get out of the way. Dr. Aaron walked out the house laughing mischievously. 

“We should like call the cops.” Yvie said once Switcher had walked away. 

“No.” Hero shook his head walking over to the twins.

“Why not?”

“I don’t want any one else knowing about time travel. They’d probably ask questions about the gear, and why he wants it so much.” 

“We could like, lie to them!” 

“And say what? He needed the gear for his broken clock?” That time it was Yates. “We have our dad back, why do we need the stupid gears? All they do is kill people.” 

“We don’t want to let time travel fall into the wrong hands. Imagine how our time can change!” 

Yates bent down so he was looking Hero right in the eyes. “What if he doesn’t know how to use it? Our dad didn’t know, and I doubt the others knew either. Those gears are dangerous, what if you ask the wrong question? Then you’ll end up dead.” 

Hero stared back coldly at Yates, there was no way he was going to let the older boy win this fight. “You do reckless stuff all the time!” 

The red head looked at the ground and for a second, Hero thought he won. “Nothing that can get me killed! What if I hadn’t seen you when I did back at the bridge? Then you and my dad would have fallen.” Yates stood up straight and started to walk off. “Lets get to school.” 

“Yates!” Yvie crossed her arms. “We aren’t the only ones with dead family members! We aren’t the only ones that lost a dad-” 

“It doesn’t matter, Yvie.” Hero sighed starting to head off in the direction of their school. “If Yates doesn’t want to help, then he doesn’t have too. He isn’t going to stop me.” 

Yvie gave a small smile at Hero. “I’ll still help you.” She reassured him. “Do you remember when Mr. Switcher was really nice? I wonder why he changed and got all, like, crazy. I don’t think Ren even lives with him any more, I think he lives with like, his grandma or something.” 

That was news to Hero. When did Ren leave Aaron? Did he do it the same time that Hero left him? Losing a wife, and two sons was probably enough to drive someone inane.. “I remember. We have to get to school.” Hero decided to end the conversation quickly, he didn’t like conversations about his dad. 

 

Despite the morning, the school day had a relaxed atmosphere. Hero had decided not to think too much about the gears, he could think about them when he got back to his house. For now, he just wanted to remember what a normal day before time travel felt like. Although he couldn’t stop a few quick thoughts going through his head. If Aaron figured out how to use the Travel Gear he could easily get the Time Gear from Hero. Then what if Switcher goes back in time and stops him from getting the gear? Then Mr. Yore would be dead. Hero felt his heart race a little, all that work, and just to have it erased, but he supposed that if Dr. Aaron had done that, then he wouldn’t have any memory of ever getting the gear in the first place. Or, at least that is what he told himself.

“Hi Hero.” It was Yvie setting her plate down on the table next to him. 

“Hello.” Hero replied back. 

It was silent, but Hero knew what Yvie wanted to say. “I’m not sure what I am going to do Yvie, I haven’t really thought about it.” 

“Oh...” She mumbled sticking a fork in the low quality pasta. 

It was silent again, Hero felt a little awkward, and he wondered weather she had realized that her dad might go away again if Switcher figured out how to use the Travel Gear and got the Time Gear to changed how events in the past went. He decided not to bring it up in case she still hadn’t figured that part out. He still hadn’t really figured that part out. Time travel was still a mystery to him. 

“Can you just like, go back in time, and stop Mr. Switcher from taking the gear in the first place?” Yvie asked now just spinning her fork around on the plate. 

“I don’t think so.” Hero said pondering the thought before shaking his head. “No, it wouldn’t work. Well, it would, but I think I would cause a paradox.” 

“Paradox? Like a time loop? But how, you haven’t yet.” Yvie questioned looking up from her food. 

“I think that your dad wasn’t meant to die, the same thing goes with the other five people.” Hero answered. “Aaron taking the gear is just fair play, the gears had no work in that.” He hoped that was true. Nothing seemed different about the present yet. There was no flying pigs or big holes in buildings, the world wasn’t crumbling in on itself, no doubles or other cliche time travel tropes Hero could notice. 

“Oh...” The redhead sighed and looked back down at her fork. “If Aaron changes things, does that, like, mean my dad might go away again?”

“Don’t worry about that, he only has the Travel Gear, I don’t think he can time travel with it.” _Please don’t put two and two together._ Hero prayed hoping that she didn’t think that he could use the gear to get the other. “Plus Yates was right, Aaron doesn’t know how to use the gears, and it will take him a while to figure out how to use it if he does. And remember, interacting with people is very limited in time travel, he probably can’t stop me from getting the gear in the first place.” The young boy said a little nervously. His answer wasn’t sound, but hopefully it would console the older girl. 

“Yeah, I hope so.” 

 

Yates had decided to take the ‘long path’ with Ren that day. Hero didn’t know where this path was and had never seen. He didn’t even know where it came out at. All he did knew is it started somewhere in the back of the school in the forest area. 

Yvie was being unusually quite, and even though Hero normally didn’t enjoy when she was constantly speaking, it felt a bit eerie. He didn’t bring it up, and just kept the walk quite figuring she would start speaking in a few minutes. 

A few minutes passed and Yvie was still silent, she even seemed drained of all her spirit since lunch. “So I think I have a good plan,” Hero said trying to break the feeling. “we should keep collecting gears, if each one does something different, then maybe we will find a gear that can help us get the Travel Gear back.” 

Yvie didn’t say anything still. 

“Please don’t tell me you are starting to agree with Yates.” 

Yvie grabbed on of her pigtails and started playing with it, letting her orange hair glide slowly through her fingers. “I guess. He like, has a point. That gear seems really dangerous.” 

“They are all dangerous.” Those probably weren’t the right words, but it was true, almost all the gears had killed at least one person. He still wasn’t sure about the Time Gear, but he figured it could probably killed someone on accident at one point just like the others. 

“Yeah...” She sighed. “Is there like, a better way of doing this?” 

Hero bit his lip. “I think the gear is the best option.” 

Yvie suddenly gasped when the turned to the corner to their home street. “Do you think we can like meet up with him at the Nine Dragons Hotel?” 

“What?” The comment seemed completely out of the blue. Meet who?

Yvie pointed forward, and Hero looked to where she was pointing. “See the sign, it says ‘Dr. Aaron Switcher’s ideas about time travel. Where? Nine Dragons Hotel in the meeting room. When? Sunday at noon. If you are a-’” 

“Right.” Hero said cutting her off. “Did you think of how we are going to get the gear? Just ask him for it?” 

Yvie frowned a little. “Well like, maybe we could trick him or something.” 

Hero thought about it for a second. If they could sneak into his house durning the time the meeting is running, then maybe they could get the gear and get out. Although, Switcher probably brought the gear everywhere with him. Hero wasn’t even sure if he lived in the same house, he could have moved in two years.  

“Oh! I know!” Yvie clapped her hands. Hero doubted the idea was very well thought out, but he let her say it anyway. “We could like, get my dad to go! You know, and those two can talk, it does say for any scientist wanting a career in time travel. My dad already knows some things about that. Don’t they like, know each other?” 

Hero stared at her in astonishment, that wasn’t a bad idea at all. If Mr. Yore could say something to get Aaron to give him the gear, then they would be set. “Yes, they do.” Hero answered quickly thinking more on Yvie’s lines. “Your dad is an engineer, so he can ‘fix’ the gear and time machine!” 

Yvie jumped up and down. “Lets go ask my dad before Yates comes back home!” She started to skip down the street. Hero followed behind her a little less enthusiastic. 

The Yore’s house was warm and comfortable as usual. Hero slipped off his shoes and coat next to Yvie. The house was quite, and he wondered weather Mr. Yore would be home already or not. “Doesn’t your dad work late?” 

“He hasn’t been. He’s been trying to cut back.” Yvie said walk-skipping into the middle of the room. “Mom! Dad! I’m home and Hero is here!” The red head called. There was no response. Yvie walked back to the front door looking to the left and right.

“Are they out?” Hero asked tapping his foot on the ground. They only had until Yates came home. 

“I don’t-” 

“Welcome home sweetie!” Mr. Yore interrupted coming into view. He was tucking in his shirt with one hand and patting his hair down with the other. “Oh, Hero it is nice to see you.” Hero nodded back to him. 

“Where is mom?” Yvie asked smiling a little. 

“She is...” He trailed off. “She is up stairs reapplying her make-up. You know how your mom is.” He coughed a little. “When I was your age I had to tell a girl that an event was happening an hour earlier than what it was. That way she would have enough time to put on all of her makeup and we could get there on time. You know I learned that after-” 

Yvie giggled. “Okay, okay dad. Me and Hero-”

“Hero and I.” Hero corrected. 

Yvie rolled her eyes. “We were wondering if you would like, maybe come with us to go see Mr. Switcher’s speech on Sunday?” 

“About time travel?” Her dad placed his hands in his pockets. “You both already know its true.” 

“Maybe he knows more.” Hero added. 

The older man sighed and rubbed his forehead. Slowly he walked over to Hero and patted him on the shoulders. “Do you remember Aaron at all?”

“Of course I remember him. He is my dad. And I only left him two years ago.” Hero stated. He was confused by Mr. Yore’s question. The man couldn’t possibly think that his memory was that bad, did he forget that Hero had a great memory? 

“We should go into the living room and talk.” With that, Mr. Yore turned and walked into the sitting room. 

“Don’t tell your dad about this morning.” Hero whispered to Yvie, who nodded. 

In the living room, Mr. Yore took a seat in a dark green fabric chair. He leaned back and relaxed, his legs were crossed and he was staring above both the kids heads, probably thinking about how he was going to begin his story. Yvie and Hero sat down on the tan couch facing the older man. 

He cleared his throat then sat up in his chair to face his daughter and the genius. “Aaron Switcher isn’t the greatest man to aspire too.” Hero wanted to laugh, he wasn’t looking to become anything like the man, but he let Mr. Yore continue. “But he isn’t the worst person I have ever meet. He worked long and hard hours for Treve. Honestly, I think he did more of the work then any of us. Though he did some bad things, and I was surprised when Treve forgave him so easily. Either way, Aaron wrecked his science career.” 

“What did he do?” It was Yvie who asked. 

“He stole work and tried to pass it off as his own. Thankfully the work was incorrect anyway, not much damage was done. It ruined his reputation.” Yvie’s father answered. “Hero, do you want to see him just because he is your father?” 

Hero shook his head. “No, I’m just interested in what he has to say. You know him, and maybe he knows something more. He could have a gear.” His face was turning red, he was an awful liar even when the lie was good he couldn’t produce a good enough poker face to carry it on. 

“Do you know, he isn’t your real father?” It took a second for the words to process through Hero’s mind. Aaron wasn’t his real father? Then who was? “Nevertheless, he did take care of you for the first six years of your life.” Mr. Yore sighed. “I thought you wanted to go see him because you remembered you lived with him for a while, but I guess that isn’t it. So what is it?” 

Hero bit his lip and looked at Yvie as if she could help. “He like, has Hero’s gear.” Yvie said after a while, Hero’s head fell into his hands. 

“He has, a gear? How did he get that?” 

Hero lifted his head to say something, but Yvie was quicker. “He came into Hero’s house today and tried to steal them. But he only grabbed the travel one.” 

“Nothing else happened after that.” Hero added in at the end, trying to get his eyes to look straight at Mr. Yore. 

The red headed man nodded his head slowly. “So he stole the Travel Gear.” He rubbed his chin. “So you want me to go with you guys to that meeting this Sunday to trick him into giving it back.” Both the younger kids nodded. “Well, I can see what I can do. Now what time did you say it was?” 

Hero gave Mr. Yore all the details. Followed after that, Mr. Yore started to tell stories about when he was in college. Hero barely listened to him, he was busy planning exactly how they were going to get the Travel Gear, and what exactly was going to be said. After a few more minutes of listening, the door opened and Yates called in and said he was home. Hero took this opportunity to leave the house and head back to his. Although, he didn’t get out without a few questions from Yates. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“I just stopped in to say hi to your dad.” Hero answered tying his shoes so he didn’t have to look at Yates.

“Well, it doesn’t take that long to say hi.” 

“You know how your dad tells those long stories.”

“Well, I know you, and you don’t do too many things without a purpose.” 

“I’m seven! I don’t have to have a purpose for everything!”  

“Was it about time travel?” 

“No. Goodbye, see you tomorrow.” Hero opened the door and walked out into the snow. He wanted to avoid lying to Yates as much as possible. The older red headed twin had a way of figuring out lies from truths, on top of Hero already being horrible at hiding details. 

As Hero made his way home, he started thinking about what he could possibly do while waiting for Sunday to come. He could, after all, still go back in time. Perhaps he could collect gears that might spare him going to the lecture and having to do things the hard way. There was only one way of figuring that out after all, and that was to go back and try. Though, Hero decided, more time travel could wait until tomorrow when he was fully awake. 

 

Night passed, and morning called to the sound of Hero’s alarm clock. The sky was still dark making even the snow on the rooftops hard to see from the bedroom. The young genius stretched out his limps and grabbed the time travel book from the nightstand. “Looks like the Time Gear is still there.” He mumbled looking inside the cut out book before jumping off his bed and proceeding downstairs. 

Walking downstairs he listened carefully for any foreign signs. Luckily, there was none to be heard and Hero flickered on the lights. “At least he didn’t realize that I had two.” Yawning, Hero placed the leather book onto the entrance room table. “I’ll think about what to do, after getting ready.” He decided heading into the bathroom.

While getting ready, the door bell sounded through the house. Hero quickly buttoned up his school uniform then yelled “Come in.” 

“Hello, Hero?” It was Yvie. 

Hero appeared from the kitchen combing his fingers through his chestnut coloured hair. “What do you want? I am certain the usual time hasn’t passed when I meet with you and Yates.” 

“Oh, Yates and Ren left early by themselves. So I thought I would catch up with you.” Yvie smiled and looked around Hero’s entrance room. “So many books... Oh! When are you going to go back in time again?” 

Without a second thought Hero answered, “Now.” 

“Now?”

“Now.”

“Sure?” 

“Yes.” 

“Can I come?” 

Hero sighed, though still nodded his head, after all Yvie was a big help when saving her dad, and just the other morning. 

Yvie jumped with excitement and laughed. “So who are we going to save?” 

Hero opened the time travel book and removed the piece of paper with all the names that Mr. Yore wrote down. “Pick a number between one through five.” 

Yvie tapped her chin in thought and hummed a little. Getting a little agitated at Yvie’s slowness Hero harshly voiced that they didn’t have all day. “Okay, okay, how about three!” 

“Ethan ‘Walrus’ Kerr it is.” The seven year old was trying hard not to smile and laugh at the ridiculous name. He could only imagine what the man looked like. “Ready?” The red headed girl nodded, she also looked like she was about to burst into a fit of laughter too. 

The genius picked up the gear. “How did Ethan ‘Walrus’ Kerr die?” Just like all the pervious times before the half gear started to spark, shake, zip, and light up sending out small white flakes that engulfed the room. Both Hero and Yvie watched as the flakes got heavier and heavier, then lighter and lighter until they fell to the ground and evaporated. 

Just like last time they were in Hero’s house with the tip of the gear pointing towards Hero’s door. Hero looked at Yvie and Yvie smiled back to him, Hero didn’t really understand why, they had to walk. The young boy hoped that Dr. Kerr didn’t live too far away from him. 

Hero’s hopes were dashed as he found himself walking towards downtown. It was going to be a long walk. He looked up at Yvie to see if she was still smiling, she was. Hero felt bitter that she was having a fine time, she could walk much faster than him because her legs were a lot longer than his. “Why did Aaron have to take my gear. I hate walking.” 

“Oh, don’t be so sour about it. Walking is good for you.” Yvie gave a pat to Hero’s head and a little giggle. As if that was an sort of incentive to feel better.

While they were walking Hero took the time to examine the time. There was no snow on the rooftops, and the weather was slightly warmer, it was probably late November around the beginning of the day. It looked as if most of the shops were just opening as they got farther into downtown. 

Twenty minutes later, the two had made it to a narrow road in the shade of many tall apartment buildings. The ground was not cement but old bricks that were displaced due to time and the ground moving underneath them. Most of the buildings were made of thick red bricks, while other ones, probably newer buildings were made of cement and looked more modern. 

Hero rolled the half gear in his hands and looked to see where it was pointing. With a stroke of luck, the gear was already fully light up. “Good, we are finally here. We just have to find out what apartment.” The young kids looked around at the tall buildings in front of them, placing the Time Gear in his pocket. 

“Oh.” Yvie said looking behind herself. “I think I found it.” 

“How could you have-” Hero cut himself off once he turned around and saw the very small out of place dark gray house between all of the apartments. On the door was a wooden sign that declared the house belonging to a Dr. Kerr who was opened for memory therapy.

“Lets knock on the door!” Yvie bounced over to the wooden door, raised her pale fist to knock, however right before she had a chance to bang on the door, it opened. Yvie gasped and stepped back. 

Inside was a young women with short blonde hair. She looked like she had been crying recently. Her colour was dusty looking. Standing next to her was a tall over weight elderly man, he was holding the door for her, he looked content, but he had a smile one his face. He was wearing a white polo shirt with a few red strips across the chest and was tucked into his pants, which didn’t look too appealing sense his belly was going over his belt. Though, more importantly his colour wasn’t faded and he had a strong purple outline to him.

The older man cleared his throat. “Well Mrs. Thorn, I hope that this session really helped and that you will feel better.” 

Mrs. Thorn smiled. “Thank you again Dr. Kerr, you really are able to help the mind forget some things.” With that, the short blonde women nodded and then ducked away from the group down the narrow street. 

“Now, can I help you two kids?” Dr. Kerr said in a deep powerful voice. “I didn’t think that I had any more appointments, and most certainly not with any children.”

“Oh, you don’t sir.” Yvie said with a big smile on her face. “But we wanted to talk to you.” 

“Is it relevant to me? Or are you out selling cookie dough for your school?” The elderly man rubbed the back of his nearly bald head. 

“Cookie dough might be relevant to you.” Hero mumbled. Yvie nudge him harshly with her elbow. “I mean, time travel sounds relevant doesn’t it?” 

Dr. Kerr narrowed his eyes at the two kids moving them from Hero to Yvie. “I use to work in that area. However, it has been many years since I even picked up the topic. So, I must ask, why would it be relevant now?” 

Hero pushed his hands in his pockets thinking for a moment. Playing with the broken gear in his pockets he went over all the possibilities of how he should go over talking to the aged scientist. “I don’t have all day boy, get on with it.” Kerr grumbled grabbing his golden door knob. 

“Well,” The genius started as he pulled the Time Gear from his pocket. “does this ring any bells?” 

A silver sparkle seemed to appear in the partially bald man’s dark eyes. He bent down and stepped closer to Hero, who quickly put the gear behind his back. “Where did you get that gear, boy?”The older doctor grabbed both of Hero’s shoulders and stared him straight in the eye. “No children should be playing around with something so important!” 

“So it is important? What does it do?” Hero asked acting as innocent and oblivious as he could. 

Although, his plans were quickly ruined by Yvie. “Hero, you know what it does. We’re already back in time. Did you like, forget or something?” 

Dr. Kerr let go of Hero, stepping back slowly into his house. “You-You’re from the future? Time travel is, possible?” The older man’s eyes betrayed his shocked face. 

“You already knew that though. So do you have a gear or not? Let me rephrase that, will you give us your gear?” Hero slipped the Time Gear back into his pocket while the older man thought. 

“No.” 

“You’ll die then.” 

Kerr’s eyes turned from calmed to an angry panicky look. “That is no way to address matters. Now straighten up and leave my sight.” He boomed. 

“But sir, you really will! He isn’t like, joking or anything!” Yvie pleaded clapping her hands together. 

The aged man gave a gruff puff. “Even if I did die, I’m not giving my business to a couple of children.” With that said, he slammed the door. 

“Wait!” Yvie cried knocking on the door. “Do you know what day it is?” 

“November fifteenth!” Could be barely heard though the door, and was the last thing that Dr. Kerr said to the two young kids. 

“November fifteenth...” Yvie tapped her cheek. “I think today is the day he dies.” 

“Do you know how?” Hero asked. “If we know that, maybe we can still stop it from happening. Maybe he’ll give us the gear once he realizes he was wrong.” 

“I think he like, took too many pills or something.” 

“Overdose, great. How do we stop that? How can that even be an accident?” The genius fell back onto the facade of the house rubbing his forehead. “This better be the hardest person to save.” 

The November breeze blew through the small narrow street. The very few dried up leaves rolled along the brick pathway with muffled click, click, clicks. Open windows high up on the apartments could be heard rattling as gust of winds caught the screens. These were some the sounds Hero listened to as he tried to think up a new plan to get Kerr’s gear. Nothing came and he ended up sitting on the uneven brick walkway. 

“Oh, Hero we’ll figure out something.” Yvie said, trying her best to sound happy. The red head girl walked over and sat down next to him. “You’ll think of something. You always do.” 

Hero shrugged his shoulder. “This time it is different.” 

“Don’t look so glum little boy!” A new voice said from the distance. 

Hero and Yvie both looked up in shock. In the middle of the narrow road not too far down the street, a girl was walking towards them. She looked to be around fifteen or fourteen and was wearing a short black pea coat and a black skirt. 

“You can,” Hero started feeling his heart racing. “See us?” 

The young kid looked around the area as he started coming closer. “Well, I don’t see anyone else around other than you two.” 

Yvie gasped and jumped up then ran over to meet up with the stranger. “You’re that one girl who wrote that really famous time travel book for kids!”

“Yeah, guess I am.” She rubbed her hand through her black hair bashfully.

“Oh my gosh! I’ve always wanted to meet someone famous!” Yvie was basically shaking with excitement. For a second Hero thought she was going to give the girl a hug. “I can’t believe it! Hero, I’m talking with Momoe Tanaka! She like came out with her first book when she was fifteen! Now she has like, a gazillion and she is only eighteen!” 

Had the meeting between the three of them been under different circumstances, Hero would have just dismissed the famous author and moved on with his life. Although, that was not the case, and the fact was that Hero knew exactly who Momoe Tanaka was. “Yvie, do you remember what time it is?” 

“Well, sometime in the morning before-” She cut herself off. “Oh! I remember we went back in time! And, oh my gosh! Ms. Tanaka, you are going to die!” 

Momoe looked startled and shocked, probably speechless to the accusation. At least that is what Hero expected. However, the young author just shrugged her shoulders looking calm. “I suppose I am.” 

“Why are you so calm about it?” Hero questioned.

“Just something I know will happen. You’ll die one day too.” 

“Yvie, how does he die?” The young genius couldn’t stand not knowing. Ms. Tanaka couldn’t have died on purpose. She had to have a gear, and the gear had to kill her. 

“Oh, she hung herself.” 

“How do you know?” Now Yoyo looked shocked. Only to look calm again moments later.  

“So you planed on dying?” The seven year old sounded a little irritated. “Then will you give us the gear before you do it?” 

“No!” Tanaka planted her hands inside his coat pocket. “I don’t want anyone else using the Knowledge Gear! It will ruin your life! The only way to get rid of it, is to die with it.” 

“How do you know all this?” Yvie said in shock. 

Hero slammed his palm on his face. “The gear, Yvie! The gear is called the Knowledge Gear!” 

Yvie’s face lit up for a moment only to fall and look hurt. “You don’t have to be so harsh about it.” 

Hero just rolled his eyes. “Um, Ms. Tanaka, why do you say that the gear is ruining your life?” 

“I know everything now! I have no more room to learn anything. It will drive someone up the wall knowing every last detail of the planet!” Tanaka pulled the gear out from one of her pockets to look at it. 

“I don’t think so.” 

“It is just so, bothersome. I want to learn things, but I can’t. I know everyone’s personal information!” 

“Is killing yourself really necessary?” 

“There is one thing I don’t know, and that is what happens after death. This gear doesn’t know until it stops.” 

Hero felt a little confused now. The gear wasn’t moving anyways, and was completely detached from any machinery. “What do you mean by that? How can it stop?” 

Yoyo sighed. “Well, since you are from the future, and already are in possession of a gear, and at one point had two, but you lost that one to Dr. Switcher-” 

“We don’t need a recap of our whole story again.” The young genius said grumpily. He could guess that the Knowledge Gear was what was really talking. 

“Right, anyways, every gear is like a living entity. They grow attached to the person that is using them. If you think about a parasite, these gears are the equivalent of one. They get use to your speech and thought patterns, and at the moment they find you venerable, they’ll attack. Of course, the one downside to the gears life, is that when the host dies, so does it.”

“Then why are they killing people?” 

“The gears don’t mean too. Have you ever had something that you couldn’t get enough of, and did stupid things to get more of it?” Yvie nodded and Hero titled his head, he was pretty good with proportions and never saw that he had a problem with this. “Well, they feel the same way. The more the host uses the gear, the more it is allowed into the mind of the host, and the less it is able to control itself. It wants to exploit all of the host. It can get to the point where the host can’t control themselves and they do something, or in most cases, ask something that the gear can’t refuse, and it ends badly.” 

“Um, what?” Yvie said playing with her bright orange pigtails. “I don’t really understand. My dad only used the gear once. And it almost killed him!” 

“In the case of your dad, who almost died falling off a bridge, it was a simple case of the gear wanting something really badly.” 

“Are you saying it felt deprived?” Hero wanted to laugh at everything the young teenager was saying. Gears having feelings, and acting like they were human sounded completely absorbed. All they were, were objects. Then again, time travel is an absorbed thing in itself.

“Yes, I am saying that! If the host isn’t feeding the parasite, it will go to desperate measures to get what it wants. Mr. Yore’s gear was hoping for him to get his bride’s eye view, then ask to be transported back to the ground. Of course, weather you saved him or not, that would have never happened.” 

“They are like little risk takers!” Yvie smiled. 

“Little, evil, risk takers.” Momoe corrected. 

“Is there anyway for us to stop you from killing yourself and giving us the gear?” Hero asked. He was starting to feel desperate himself, to the point that if Ms. Tanaka didn’t agree with him, Hero would take her on by himself. Probably even get Yvie to help, she was after all taller than Momoe. Maybe she could take Yoyo on by herself, that way Hero wouldn’t have to use anymore energy than he already has. 

“The damage is-” The author paused. “There is one way. Go back to the day I first used the gear, and stop me from using it. Just a heads up, I’ll probably be a lot different from what I am like now.” 

Hero nodded. “Just one more question.” 

“Yes?”

“You said that the gear likes to get something from the host. What exactly is it trying to gain?” 

“A heartbeat.” Momoe sighed. “Well, I will see you guys later if you succeed in getting the gear from me in the past.” 

Hero and Yvie nodded and waved goodbye. Then Yvie turned to Hero with a very concerned look. “Hero I don’t think you should use the-” 

“Yvie I’ll be fine.” 

“But Hero, she said-” 

“I know what she said, but I think I’ll be fine.”Yvie was still giving him the same look. “Yvie, we have to do this. Anyways, you are here to make sure nothing happens to me, right?” 

“Of course silly!” 

“Then you are doing a good job.” Hero smiled up at her trying to make her feel better. 

The tips of Yvie’s mouth twitched and she tried to keep it tame by forcing it into a deep frown, though only a few seconds after she burst out into laughter. “I can’t stay mad at you, like, ever!” 

“Good, then lets go stop Ms. Tanaka!” Hero pulled the Time Gear out of his pocket and held it in his hand. “When did Momoe Tanaka first use the Knowledge Gear?” The zipping, shaking, and white flakes all happened again. When it all ended, just like last time, the left of the gear was glowing and the two started to follow were the gear was taking them. 

Yvie was giggling. “Hero we just time traveled inside time travel! Isn’t that neat!” 

“Not really.” The seven year old mumbled. 

“What? But like, how does it work? I don’t think I’ve ever watched any movie were that happens.” 

“Then you probably haven’t watched that many time travel movies. Anyways, this isn’t a movie, this is real life.” That felt a little odd to say, Hero had never imagined that time travel would actually ever exist, and to him, much of what had happened felt like a really long dream. “Just think of it like asking a question within a question. We are still looking for the same answer, but we need to know other things to get there.” 

“So, we are trying to answer what? I think I forgot why we even came back in time.” 

“We are trying to save Dr. Kerr.” 

“Oh, right!” However, Yvie still looked confused. “How is doing this going to-” 

“If we get the Knowledge Gear, we can probably get Dr. Kerr to realize that he is going to die, and then he will give us the gear.” It was so simple, but for whatever reason, Yvie still didn’t seem to get it. “Just, follow my lead.” 

“Okay!” She said in a cheery way. 

The place that the gear to them was thankfully not too far away from Dr. Kerr’s house. However, Hero still wished that he had the Travel Gear so he didn’t have to walk at all. 

“Oh, the library! I haven’t been here in forever!” Yvie said walking up to the doors and opening them. Hero wondered what that looked like to everyone else, maybe it didn’t even happen. “We have a really good one at the high school, but like, I have so many good memories here.” 

Hero hadn’t been to this library in a long time either. But it felt like he was here just a few days ago. And in a way he was, it was the library that the Time Gear had come from. “Look for Ms. Tanaka.” Hero said scanning the library. Of course, the local library had to be the only library in town, and thus the biggest. Where would they start looking? How far into the past were they anyways?

“Momoe Tanaka, other wise known as Usagi Koukishin, will be doing a reading for young kids.” Yvie said aloud. Hero looked up at her and she pointed to a poster that was hanging on one of the book cases. “It is in the reading circle. I haven’t been their since I was your age!” 

“I haven’t been their since I passed your reading abilities, so I’ve never been there.” Hero smirked a little at the sound of Yvie stopping her foot in irritation. 

“Oh my gosh, you are so mean!” The older child crossed her arms. “Lets just go already.” 

The two walked over to part of the library were a light blue circular carpet was laying. On it, was a silly phrase and a cartoony book complete with arms, legs, and a smily face.At the opposite side of the carpet was an old wooden rocking chair. Behind it, was a small book shelf crammed with the favorite children stories of that year. As of that moment, the carpet was filled with small children, some younger than Hero, and a few his same age. In the chair sat the same young adult that would soon use the Knowledge Gear. Yoyo was reading ostentatiously to his own book, switching into stupid voices to keep his audience entertained. Hero took a seat behind the crowed, as he decided that it wouldn’t be the best to stop and talk to the young gear holder inasmuch as talking to a large crowed that couldn’t even see Yvie and himself. 

For the most of it, Hero just thought to himself, only breaking in if Yvie giggles became too distracting or if he thought he might learn something from them. Though, as far as learning something goes, there wasn’t much to learn from the simple book. It talked mostly about the ideas and hypothesis in a joking matter, and took almost nothing serious. Finally the book was over when Yvie and the other children started clapping and Momoe bid them goodbye. 

“About time.” Hero mumbled standing up. 

“It was a good story!” Yvie said defensively. 

“Sure if you have the same thought patterns as a five year old.” Yvie crossed her arms and looked away in a theatrical way. The genius just sighed. “Lets just go talk to the author himself, shall we?” 

“Fine.” At that, both of them walked over to where Yoyo was placing all her belongings into a purse. 

“Ms. Tanaka?” Hero asked tentatively. He could see the strong purple outline to her body, however was still a little uncertain about how to go about getting the gear from her. 

The young adult turned around with a bright smile on her face. Hero was taken aback at how much younger she looked then when they first met and wondered how far back in time they actually were. “What can I do for you? Do you want me to sign something of yours?” 

“No, actually I have-”

“Oh, yes!” Yvie interpreted while she patted her coat pockets. “Let me just find something.” 

“Please ignore her.” Hero mumbled. “Actually, Ms. Tanaka-” 

“You can call me Yoyo. Ms. Tanaka sounds too formal.” The author said bending down to Hero’s height. “Now go ahead.” 

The seven year old bit the inside of his cheek wondering if any one else was going to interrupt him before he continued. “I was wondering if you have a silver gear?” 

There was a shock in Momoe’s eyes before she nodded her head. “Well- I do. But how do you know about it?” 

Hero sighed, and rattled out the story about how he is actually from the future and he is trying to collect all the gears from the seven students of the Professor, and at the moment he was asked to go back in time and stop a younger Momoe from using the gear in the first place. 

“How far into the future?” The young adult looked wide eyed at Hero. 

“I don’t know, has there been any death’s in the news?” 

“There was one suicide at the local high school just a few days ago. Poor kid-” 

“We are from two months in the future.” Hero cut him off. “It isn’t too far.” 

“How did you get here?” 

“By using one of the gears.” Hero once again pulled out the half of silver gear. 

Momoe nodded smiling brightly at it. “I can’t believe it actually worked!” She started to rub her hands together, then sat back down in the chair. “So can my gear do the same thing? If it can, why is it so bad to use it?”

Hero opened his mouth to answer all of the older girls questions, however stopped himself and thought up a new plan. “You should try to use your gear.” 

Ms. Tanaka nodded her head excitingly then reached into one of her purse pockets and pulled out the Knowledge Gear. “Okay, so how do you use it?” She paused and blinked, then stared down at the gear. “Did-I just ask it a question? I didn’t know that, how did that even happen?” Again she stopped and blinked. “What is this thing? The Knowledge Gear. Goodness, it is answering all my questions! Why wouldn’t I want to use it? I commit suicide to learn what happens after death after learning everything!” The young author dropped the gear and looked at Hero. “Goodness. Go ahead and take it, I don’t want it.” 

“I knew you would see things my way.” Hero picked up the gear. The small silver cog felt hot in his hands and it was shivering a little. 

“Um, thank you for saving my life.” 

“Oh wait! I found something!” Yvie said pulling out a pair of black gloves. “Though this probably won’t work...” 

Yoyo laughed. “Don’t worry about it, meet me sometime in the future, and I’ll sign you something, both of you!” 

“Thankies!” Yvie smiled. 

“Er, thank you.” That was the last thing the two said to Momoe as the library started to fade away and disappear back into the narrow brick path where Dr. Kerr lived. 

Hero and Yvie looked at each other with a half smile. At least now they had a gear that could convince people that they were going to die, perhaps now this would make everything a whole lot easier. Of course, that wasn’t how anything goes, Hero thought grimly. 

“Now we can save Dr. Kerr!” The teen girl exclaimed. She ran up to the door that stated the doctor lived there and knocked on his door. However, there was no answer. Hero looked at Yvie, and she looked right back, both of them with worried expressions on their faces. Yvie knocked again this time louder and faster. Soon both of them started to yell through the door. “What if we are like, too late?” Yvie said stopping her knocking. 

“No, we can’t, we returned to the same time we went back in time.” Hero said trying to reassure himself. “It would take a while for all the pills to work.” The young boy started to rattle the door nob and yell out. “Dr. Kerr please open up it is really important! We have another gear! We really need to talk!” 

Turning from the door the genius started to think of any possibility of getting into the house. He tapped his foot and combed his fingers through his hair before turning around to look at the old brick house. There was a second story window opened, that Hero would be able to crawl through if he climbed up. However it was painted and the bricks were probably too slick to grasp onto. Looking down at where the foundation was, there didn’t seem to be any sign of a basement or at least a window into the basement. His eyes took in every detail of the building in seconds, but there didn’t seem to be a possible way. Then looking at Yvie in desperation an idea had stuck him. “Yvie move under that window that is open, up there.” The red head did as she was told, and Hero was able to judge better. The building was old and a little shorter than more modern builds, so perhaps his plan would work. “Okay, now lift me onto you shoulders, I am going to crawl in through that window up there.” 

“Hero I don’t think you’re tall enough to reach it.” Yvie said looking up above her. 

“Just trust me on this.” Hero pleaded. “We don’t have much time.” 

Yvie looked up then back down to Hero. “Just be careful.” She bent down with her back facing the sever year old allowing him to get on. She then stood up facing the building. Hero slowly raised himself until both of his feet were on her shoulders and Yvie was hanging onto his ankles. Hero reached up, however he wasn’t even close to the opened window. 

Hero would have lost hope, if it wasn’t for a very thin ledge, where some of the brick popped out a bit farther from the rest of the house. If he could get up on it, he would be able to climb through the window without any problems. “Yvie, I am going to try to get onto this ledge,” He patted the overhang not sure if Yvie could see it or not. “I can’t pull myself up by myself, do you think you could let me stand on your hands for a little?” 

There was no answer for a minute and Yvie shifted her position a little. “When I was younger we use to do something like that in cheerleading, though, we like had three people holding up one person. But I guess, I might be able to, just be like super fast, kay?” 

Hero nodded then remembered she couldn’t see him. “Of course. Ready?” He was starting to feel a little frantic. His question was answered by Yvie removing her hands from his ankles, the seven year old felt a bit unsteady, then grasped the painted brick mental with both his hands. Raising one foot he lightly stepped on one of Yvie’s hands, then sighed. He didn’t have much time to waste, but he didn’t want to hurt the red head at the same time. Then with all his strength he pulled most of his upper body past the overhang, and placed his other foot on Yvie remaining hand. Making haste, he lunged his right hand up and grasped the window sill, still trying to keep most of his weight off Yvie. 

The pain in his arms was already setting in. He had to be swift with his next moves if he wanted to make it in through the window. With one last breath, Hero lifted his right foot up and onto the grey ledge, forcing his knee against his chest. Soon his left hand would be placed on the window sill next to his right hand, and his left foot just barely on the ridge of the house along with his right foot. 

Once in this position he lifted himself up just a little more so he would be able to propel himself into the opening of the house. However, right as he was getting into a good position, he started to feel his feet sliding back and loosing the very little ground he had on the ledge. Swallowing hard, the genius briskly plunged himself through the window. He felt his legs kick up into the air, then with a hard thump landed, inside the house face first. 

He rubbed cheek a bit from the carpet burn before pulling himself all the way through the window. He could hear Yvie calling him from below and he promptly looked down at her through the window and gave her a thumbs up to show that he was okay. Turning back to get a look at the room he was in, it appeared to be a small study with one desk and a few books laying around. There wasn’t anything too memorable and the young child left the room to look for the older doctor before the man’s life ran short. 

Outside, was just a small landing leading to three rooms and a staircase going to the downstairs, the study Hero was just in, a bathroom, and another room that was closed, probably Dr. Kerr’s own bedroom. Right before Hero was able to grab the handle to the bedroom, there was a loud sound from downstairs, it sounded as if something shattered, but it was muffled at the same time. Hero took no time running down the stairs to see what had happened. 

To his horror, he saw Dr. Ethan Kerr stumbling around his very small kitchen. One of his hands was placed firmly on his forehead, while the other was clutching tightly to something that kept flashing a bright white light. He looked like he was suffering from a sever headache. However, he was also twitching and convulsing. Then, to no avail of his own, the doctor started to reach for a yellow tube filled with pills on the counter next to him. 

At that Hero acted and ran into the kitchen and grabbed the pills before Dr. Kerr could reach them. Without thinking, Hero threw them across the room to hear the same muffled shattering he heard earlier, Hero could feel chills down his spine when he spotted three other yellow tubes laying on the floor with numerous little multicolour pills scattered around. 

Hero had to do some quick thinking to save Dr. Kerr and get the gear away from him. An idea, popped straight into his mind and the seven year old hurriedly opened up the fridge and scanned the inside before finding what he needed, mustard. The young boy didn’t bother searching the cabinets and drawers for cups instead he just pulled one out of Dr. Kerr’s sink. Hero turned on the sink and stuck the cup underneath the flowing water praying for it to be warm enough. At the same time, he started to squirt the mustard into the cup creating an unappealing yellow mixture. 

“Dr. Kerr, if you can still hear me, sit down.” The seven year old looked up at the much bigger man, then saw him nod his bald head before sinking down onto the kitchen ground still twitching and holding his head. Hero took notice that the thing in his hand had stopped flashing and was now able to see the silver shine of a gear. In spite of it, Hero shakily placed his hand on the older man’s forehead as a signal to lean back. Luckily, Dr. Kerr did exactly that and opened his mouth and Hero tipped the cup so it poured out and into his mouth, hopefully not too fast. 

The older man gaged a little at the end but was able to swallow all of it. At this point Hero hastily went to the front door and unlocked and opened it for Yvie. The young teen was bitting at her nails gazing up at the window. Her blue eyes appeared to have a concerned look to them. Then Hero spoke up. “Yvie! Come in and help me look for a bowl or bucket!” 

The twin jumped at little and looked at the boy with relief before nodding her head. “What do we need that for? Is Dr. Kerr okay?” 

“He is now, I hope.” Hero said looking over to the direction of the kitchen were the older man was still twitching and rubbing his head. “He might regurgitate in approximately twenty-minutes though.” 

Yvie made a face of disgust and became silent except for one curt nod before she went off into the kitchen to look through the cabinets. The two kids looked for a while before finally finding a rather large cooking pot and placing it next to the older man. They both looked at each other and left to go sit on the couch just right next to the kitchen. 

It felt like a while before the sound of someone gaging and then the gross sound of fluids falling into the pan. Hero had been starting to get relaxed and Yvie quickly covered her nose and closed her eyes. The young genius stood up and walked partially into the kitchen not wanting to look at whatever mess had been made. “Are you feeling better?” 

“Yes,” The older man crocked. First he looked around at the floor to valuate the mess of bottles and pills and then he looked up at Hero a little confused. 

“You should call 9-1-1, then go to the ER.” Hero suggested.

Dr. Kerr rubbed his forehead and nodded slowly. “Young boy, do you know what happened?” 

“You tried to kill yourself by an overdose.” Hero answered flatly. It seemed like Dr. Kerr knew what was going on, or at least near the end of it. Hero narrowed his eyes on the gear that the doctor still held in his hand, though waited to bring it up. 

“I would never! I have no meaning of killing myself! Someone must have poisoned me!” Dr. Kerr attempted to stand up by himself, however ended up needing the support of the counter behind him. He then started to look Hero up and down. “You’re that boy from earlier.” 

“I am. So do you believe me about the dying yet?”  

Ethan Kerr took a long deep breath in, held it for a couple of seconds, then let it go. “The evidence is damning. However, how do I know you didn’t try to kill me just to get my gear?” 

“Why would I save you then?” Hero fired back. “Those gears are dangerous. They only want to feed off of you. If you don’t believe me, then ask this.” The young chestnut haired boy pulled out Momoe’s gear and extended it out to Dr. Kerr. “This one lets you know an answer to any question.” 

The older man’s dark eyes glazed over the gear then back at Hero. “I would rather not. Catch.” With that, he tossed his gear up into the air letting Hero catch. “Do tell though, what day do you come from?”

“December sixth, it is a Thursday.” Yvie informed with a smile. Hero flashed her a quick angered look, then turned his attention back to Dr. Kerr. They didn’t have much time left before Yvie and Hero returned to their time. 

“I will remember, now let me tell you about the gear before you return to your time. That is called the Memory Gear and-” 

Dr. Kerr never finished his lecture as the room started to fade and melt into one. Hero felt his heart skip a beat, trusting that Yvie would automatically come back with him. He couldn’t turn or look behind him, he couldn’t move at all. _I’ll have to keep that in mind_ , he thought to himself. Soon his entrance room was back in sight and everything seemed fine. Hero turned to see Yvie smiling brightly down at Hero’s hands. 

“You got it!” She clapped and smiled brightly. “We like, pulled that one so close.” 

“Maybe, I hope he called or left to the ER.” Hero sighed and looked around. “But now we have the Knowledge and the Memory Gear.” 

“Two in one!” 

Hero just nodded and looked at the two new gears. The Knowledge Gear looked about the same size as the Travel Gear, or what the Time Gear would be, maybe slightly smaller. However the Memory Gear was about a third bigger and thicker. “Maltier did a good job making these gears look like his partners.” Hero laughed a little darkly at the thought. He didn’t know much about the guy, but whoever he was, he didn’t seem like he would be pleasant, and it almost seemed like he planned for these deaths. 

“We should like, get to school soon!” Yvie said looking up at the clock. 

“This is the time we usually leave for school Yvie. Remember, time doesn’t pass in the present when we go back.” Hero reminded her grabbing his back pack. 

“Oh right. Wait, does this mean that I am aging faster than usual!” The teenaged girl slapped her hands on her cheek. “Oh my gosh! I am going to look so old when I am older because of it!” 

Hero giggled a little at Yvie’s silliness. “Or maybe you’ll live a little longer because our aging process is frozen.” 

“Really?” Yvie asked in a high pitched voiced.

Hero shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe.” The two kids smiled at each other and started for school. 

 

The rest of the day went by fast for Hero. It was Ren’s Birthday, and Yates was skipping school with the now fifteen-year-old. Of course, that only made the day even better. Hero’s thoughts about not having the Travel Gear any more were slipping away, now turning into what gear he would come across next. He also started pondering about what exactly a time machine was needed for if all the gears could work without it. Maybe if all the gears were together, it would do something bigger, or interacting with people of the past wouldn’t be so limited. 

The school bell rung and Hero and Yvie walked back to their houses together. Neither of them really talked about much important, and none of the small talk was remembered when they said goodbye to each other and walked into their separate houses. 

Lights flickered on in Hero’s room, he sighed and went to lay on his bed. Closing his eyes, he listened to the silence of the big empty room, something he longed to change. Every so often these moods would take control of his mind and he would remember times when the bed across the room from his was filled. He looked at his night stand next to his bed, with the old leather book that carried the gears in it. If he could only go back once more to save one more person’s life, he knew exactly who it would be. After a few more moments of thoughts, Hero turned off his light, and fell asleep. 

 

The alarm clock buzzed several times, but despite it’s efforts, Hero wasn’t going to wake up. By the time his eye opened, he had already started panicking and rushing himself. When he was trying to get his clothes on, Yvie was already knocking at his door. The seven year old pressed himself and ran down the stairs, out the door to meet up with the fifteen year old girl. She was laughing at the sight of him. While walking to school Hero tried to straighten himself out, although nothing seemed to work and gave up only seconds later. 

The genius felt relieved when he made it to his seat in time for class, and with a little time extra. He laid his head down on his desk and closed his eyes trying to figure out what made him so tired that morning. He came to the conclusion that he had probably stayed up later than usual and was now thrown off his schedule. 

“Aw, did you not get all your sweepy time?” 

“Go away Ren...” Hero mumbled turning his head away from where the older boy’s voice was coming. 

“Wittle cranky?” Ren mocked patting Hero on the back. 

At that, Hero promptly sat up straight and looked Ren straight in the eyes. “Isn’t there another place you can go and be stupid at?” 

The brunette placed his hands over heart and dramatically staggered backwards.“Is that what you think of me? I am wounded.” 

Hero sighed and placed his head back down on the desk. He wasn’t in the mood to play Ren’s games. 

“Silent treatment, I see how it is.” The seven year old could hear two elbows hit the desk and there was a fake exasperated sigh. “I didn’t even get a happy birthday from you yet.” 

“Your birthday was yesterday.” Hero mumbled still refusing to get up. “Where is Yates? Shouldn’t you be doing something moronic with him?” He lifted his head up a little to look around next to Ren, but didn’t see the young red head. 

“Maybe I feel like talking to you.” The teenaged boy said while giving Hero a quick pinch on the arm. 

“Ow.” Hero barked flinching away. “You aren’t talking to me, you are annoying me!” 

“Just play fighting.” Ren smirked, making crab hands. 

“Ren, leave Hero alone, he is all off his schedule and stuff!” Yvie piped in making Hero feel relieved. 

“Oh fine.” Ren flicked his wrist then walked off. 

“I guess him and Yates got into a fight yesterday.” Yvie said leaning over her desk to talk behind Hero. 

Hero just nodded. He couldn’t say he cared all too much about them fighting. The only part that Hero cared about was Ren being far more agitating then normal. “Hopefully they get over it soon.” Although Hero doubted it, the two boys had a track recored of a normal fight lasting more than a week. These fights were always started by Yates, and over dumb, insignificant things.

“Do you think Yates will get over the whole gear thing now?” Hero had to admit that he was thinking the same thing. There was no way Yates would be able to keep his attention on the fight he was having with Hero. The seven year old was starting to feel better about the morning. 

“Perhaps.” Hero sighed, crossing his arms on his desk and resting his chin on them.

 

Nothing of interest to Hero happened throughout the rest of the school day. He found himself drifting off into thought more then once durning several classes. The thoughts were no doubt triggered by his ideas of what he could use the gears for. All of them had a different purpose, so their original intention was not only a time machine, but something far more powerful. Of course, Hero had no way of knowing how all the gears worked together. He didn’t even know what all of them did. 

By the time he was walking home with the Yore twins, no new theories really came to mind. 

“What is the fight about? You know, with you and Ren.” Yvie inquired to her older brother, who had a glum look to his face all day. 

“Nothing...” Yates mumbled keeping his hands in his red hoodie pocket. “When are we going to time travel next?”

“I thought you didn’t want to anymore? Change your mind?” 

Yates just frowned a little, and shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose.” 

“We did it yesterday. In the morning. And we saved two people.” Yvie informed Yates, in a voice that sounded too proud. 

Her brother was derailed by her information and gave her a perplexed look. “Who?” 

“Some guys named Dr. Kerr and Yoyo Tanaka, you know, like, the famous one that writes the children’s books.” 

Now Yates was blinking his eyes fast in astonishment. “You got to meet a famous person!” Yvie just nodded cooly, enjoying the jealousy that was coming from her brother.“That’s so cool! You should have told me that you were going to save hrt! I didn’t even know she was one of them!” 

“Dad wrote her on the list-Oh that is right, you were being all stubborn.” Yvie’s mock laugh could probably be heard a mile away, Hero thought pressing his hands over his ears. “Maybe you shouldn’t like, get so upset about things so easily.” 

Yates mouth opened and closed several times. “That gear killed dad!” 

“Yeah, yeah, but he is alive now. So no harm done, right? You just like to start fights out of nowhere.” 

“So do you!” Yates complained.  

“Nah-uh.” 

“Yah-huh.”

“Nah-” 

“Stop!” Hero yelled having enough of their bickering. “Yates, if you want to come on the next trip back in time, then come. Just don’t throw the gears away and don’t delay us with your decision.” Yates didn’t say anything more for the rest of the walk, which Hero was fine with. Yvie, however, continued to talk about anything and everything. Hero, oddly enough didn’t mind that either, it was nice to have times that were normal, and not always about time travel. He wanted to moan at the thought that he had only been in possession of the gears for five days and he was already feeling like they were a heavy weight, the thought of having to carry them for an unknown amount of time was almost unbearable. 

Before Hero knew it he was waving the twins bye and walking into his house.His home felt warm and comforting, compelling him to forget about time travel forever and just sit in read. Which he ended up doing. Sitting on the floor next to the bookshelf Hero started to go through his books, reading each title that he had yet to read, and contemplating on weather he should read it or not. 

_The Time Machine by H. G. Wells._ Hero smiled and pulled the book from the shelf. It was a classic he had yet to read, and wasn’t planning on for a while sense he had little fascination in time travel. He thumbed through the book and thought about how different it will be from his experience. H. G. Wells was the man who coined the name time machine, Hero wondered what else it would have been called had Wells not decided on that name. Deciding not to think of all the ridiculous options, Hero stood back up and stated to walk over to his favorite chair. 

The dreams of relaxing and reading fell short for the young boy when he heard a knocking on his door. Pushing the book back into the shelf, he stood up and walked over to the door. He was expecting it to be the twins asking him for something; homework was the best bet. To his astonishment, it wasn’t Yvie or Yates behind the heavy white wood door, but Dr. Kerr and Momoe Tanaka. 

“You can’t have your gears back.” Hero quickly informed holding on tightly to the silver door knob. 

“You’re jumping to conclusions, my boy.” Dr. Kerr said looking Hero straight in the eyes. “We are merely here to say thank you.” 

Hero opened the door to show more of himself and the inside of his house. He broke eye contact with the older, taller man to look at the short teenager next to him. Yoyo was smiling brightly down at him, shifting from one leg to the other every so often. His eyes slowly made it back to Dr. Kerr who was also still looking at him. “You’re welcome.” The genius said slowly, returning most of his body back behind the door. “If that is all,” Hero started closing his door still keeping eye contact with the older man. “Then I am going to-” 

A burly, yet aged hand caught the edge of the wooden door before it could fully close forcing it to open up more. Hero leaned against door with all his body weight but couldn’t stop from being pushed back. His heart started to race feeling himself easily slide across the floor. “I am not in the mood for company.” Hero called weakly hoping they would just go away. 

Then the door started sliding back in his favor, and with a click it closed. He took a step back from it to trying to get a breath, only to bump into something soft and around. He titled his head back to see the dark face of Ethan Kerr. 

“Slow down boy.” The older man said in his deep, emphatic voice. Hero decided to listen only moving to step back and look up at the man. “We would like to talk to you for a little.” 

“How did you find out where I live?” Hero decided that if they were going to talk, he would be the first one to get his questions answered. 

“Your red headed friend, she is Joseph’s daughter. We made a trip over there to ask who you were, and where you lived.” Dr. Kerr answered walking over to the dark brown table in the middle of the room and sat down. “Interesting enough, you lived where Maltier and his wife use too.”

“Lucky for us, you weren’t very far.” Yoyo chimed in from where she was standing by the bookshelf. “You sure do have a lot of books. Have you read them all?” 

“No.” Hero answered feeling slightly agitated that the Yore’s gave away his personal information, though quickly became interested in what Dr. Kerr had said. “The Professor use to live here?”

“Yup.” Momoe nodded walking to a bookshelf at the opposite end of the entrance room. “I thought his nephew was the last one to live here, or something like that.” 

“Do you know his nephew? At least a name?” 

The young female shook her head then answered. “Nope, can’t remember. Ethan, do you remember?” 

The older man leaned back in the wooden chair and tapped one foot lazily on the ground. “It escapes me.” 

“Do you at least know what happened to him?” The younger boy squeezed his hands together waiting anxiously for either of the two guest to answer. 

“Tanaka do you remember anything about him?” Dr. Kerr passed the question off to the younger of the two. 

“Nope.” Yoyo went back to searching through Hero’s books. “No one really got to know him. He just showed up soon after Treve went missing, and then disappeared, or lived here for some time. I think that was read at Treve’s memorial, that his nephew gets his house.” 

“He was young.” The older man nodded listening to the younger man. “He was thirteen then.” 

“Maybe he left to his parents, didn’t he say they lived in France?” The older teen, facing towards Hero and Dr. Kerr, was now fully focused on the conversation at hand.

“He had to have sold it either way. Hero’s parents own it now.” Dr. Kerr concluded with a nod towards the young genius. 

“No.” Hero shook his head. “The Yore’s told me that they have been taking care of this house for a friend. Before I lived here, there was another boy, his parents were gone away on a business trip.” As he retold what he had been told, nothing seemed to add up. 

“Then Mr. Yore must have been friends with the people that Maltier’s nephew sold the house too.” There seemed to be a heaviness in the air. 

“Do you think the kid was the nephew? Joseph was always good friends with Treve and his wife.” Momoe suggested. “What was his name?” 

“Phillip Jones.” Hero answered. The thought was eerie and unpleasant in his head, Phillip couldn’t have been the nephew of a famous scientist and not be known for it, or at least he couldn’t have kept it from Hero for long. 

“Maybe, it fits with everything else, parents somewhere, lived in this house. How old was he? What happened to him?” Momoe seemed pleased to be asking all the questions, though before Hero was able to speak, she slipped in a quick, “If that isn’t too personal.” 

“He was thirteen, and he died just two months ago.” Hero’s voice was flat. 

“Oh.” Was all Yoyo said after that, then turned back to the books. 

Dr. Kerr shook his head. “The nephew that got the house would be around twenty-one today.” The older man paused to clear his throat. “What were we talking about again, before this conversation?” 

“Why are you two are here.” Hero answered still using the same monotone voice. 

“Right.” Dr. Kerr nodded slowly and adjusted himself in the wooden chair. Hero walked over and joined him at the table on the chair opposite of him. “We wanted to talk to your parents. Are they free at the moment?” 

“They aren’t here.” Hero answered. “My mom left my dad, and I left when I was six.”  

“Didn’t your father ever come looking for you?” 

“No.” 

“How does that make you feel?” 

The young boy narrowed his eyes. “You aren’t my therapist.” 

“You wouldn’t mind then if I asked you if you really think that I would believe that a six year old could live by himself.” 

“I don’t. I didn’t. The Yore’s took care of me for a while, Phillip later asked if I could stay with him here because he was lonely. So for the past eight months I have been staying here.” 

“Since Phillip is gone, why don’t you go back to the Yore’s house?” 

“I like it here.” 

“Don’t you get lonely?” 

“If I need company I’ll just go over to the Yore’s house. I also have Tortue.” 

“Tortue?” It was Yoyo. 

“He is my pet turtle.” Hero answered noticing that the older teen was suddenly smiling a lot more. 

“Where does he stay?” The genius pointed to his living room and the eighteen year old was gone in a second. 

“You’ll have to excuse Tanaka, she has always been an strange girl.” Dr. Kerr said regaining Hero’s attention. “So did Phillip’s parents come back?” 

Hero took his time thinking of what to say. The thought had never crossed his mind, he hadn’t seen them at the funeral, and never received a letter from them. They almost seemed intangible. The mailbox use to be full of letters from them, and then it wasn’t when Phillip died. “I don’t know. If they did, I never saw them, or didn’t really take any notice. What did you want to talk to my parents about anyway?” 

“How you got that gear, or gears.” Dr. Kerr answered. 

“I found the Time Gear in a book from the library, and I accidentally triggered it when I asked a question.”Hero tapped his fingers together wondering if he should expand on his story or not. “Do you know who Aaron Switcher is?” 

“Of course I know, he was Maltier’s assistant.” The older man leaned back in the wooden chair, there was a creak that made Hero stiffen. “He was caught trying to steal Maltier’s work, he was forgiven later. He was a very determined young man when I knew him. None of the others working with Maltier ever got to speak with him much. Always had the poor boy running around for research, and when he wasn’t, he was locked up in Maltier’s office examining everything he had found.” 

“It sounds like Aaron did most of the work.” Hero commented.

“He might have, my boy.” Dr. Kerr rested one of his hands on the table tapping his fingers in a soft rhythm. “We can’t tell for sure, everything Maltier did in his office, was kept a secrete from everyone.” 

“He is a cute turtle.” The young voice of Momoe came through the arch of the door. She smiled when Hero looked over at her, then went to join the two at the table. Momoe started talking about the time coming closer to eating time; Dr. Kerr waved a hand at her to stop talking, however the teenager didn’t. “Oh, and what about Hero? We can’t just leave him alone.” 

“Yes, you can.” Hero answered sliding off his chair. “I’ll even show you the door.” 

“What will you eat?” 

“Whatever the Yore’s are making...” The seven year old paused and thought for a second. “Thinking about it, I am not really hungry.” 

“Oh.” Was the last word form Yoyo. 

Dr. Kerr stood up slowly from the chair, both him and the chair snapping back into place. “Goodnight. We will be in contact again shortly.” Hero nodded not wanting to say anything more that would drag the conversation on any longer, he still had a book to start reading. 

When the door closed for the night to the backs of the former time travel theorist, Hero released a heavy sigh. He smiled, thinking he was happy to finally be alone. The book that he had been interrupted from was still sitting on the book shelf, waiting to be taken over to the tan chair in Hero’s living room. Then Hero lost all motivation and just slumped down in the smooth fabric of the chair by himself. There was an odd regretful feeling in his stomach, he would have thought he had caught a cold if he didn’t know better. He laid his head back, then rolled it lazily to the side, locking eyes with Tortue. “I could have made the conversation longer. Do you think I should have?” The painted turtle did nothing but stare off into space. “I think so too.” 

 


End file.
